The Rest of a Full Eye Practice.

A pterygium is a raised, often wing-shaped growth of pink, fleshy tissue on the white of the eye that can slowly creep onto the clear cornea. Years of UV exposure, wind, and dust — a familiar combination in South Florida — are the most common triggers, which is why it's sometimes nicknamed “surfer's eye.”

Most people notice redness, a gritty or irritated feeling, or a visible growth at the corner of the eye. Left to advance, a pterygium can distort the cornea's shape and blur vision, not just irritate the eye's surface.

Mild, stable pterygia are often managed with lubricating drops and consistent UV-blocking sunglasses. When one is growing toward the visual axis, causing persistent irritation, or bothering you cosmetically, we remove it surgically at our own surgical center — typically with a conjunctival autograft technique that keeps recurrence rates low and healing straightforward.

Often a good fit for: anyone with a visible growth on the eye's surface, new astigmatism from a growth encroaching on the cornea, or persistent redness and irritation that hasn't responded to drops alone.

The cornea is more than the surface we reshape for LASIK and PRK — it's the eye's clear, protective front window, and when something goes wrong there, it needs a specialist who treats it every day, not just for elective surgery.

We manage the full range of corneal disease: keratoconus (with specialty rigid and scleral contact lens fittings, and corneal cross-linking to halt its progression), corneal infections and ulcers, recurrent corneal erosion, chemical and traumatic injuries, and scarring from prior disease or injury. When a cornea is damaged beyond what medical treatment can restore, we perform corneal transplantation — from full-thickness grafts to more targeted partial-thickness procedures like DSEK and DMEK — matched to exactly which layer of the cornea needs replacing.

Because it's the same fellowship-trained cornea specialists handling both your routine visits and your complex cases, problems tend to get caught and treated early, well before they threaten your vision.

Often a good fit for: keratoconus, corneal scarring or clouding, recurrent erosion or injury, or anyone who has been told they may eventually need a corneal transplant.

Bumps, styes, chalazia, and other eyelid lesions are extremely common, and most are harmless — but the eyelid is delicate tissue, so a lesion that needs a biopsy or removal deserves someone trained in that specific anatomy, not a general skin procedure.

We also perform functional blepharoplasty — eyelid-lift surgery for upper eyelids that have become heavy or droopy enough to obstruct your actual field of vision. This is a medical procedure, not a cosmetic one: candidacy is evaluated with visual field testing, and where the criteria are met, it's often covered by insurance as medically necessary. We do not perform cosmetic blepharoplasty.

Every eyelid procedure here is performed in-house at our own surgical center, by the same doctors who examine you in the chair.

Often a good fit for: a new or changing eyelid bump, or upper eyelids that feel heavy or are blocking your side vision.

The retina is where light actually becomes sight — and problems there, whether it's a slow change from diabetes or a sudden shower of new floaters, deserve prompt, expert attention rather than a wait-and-see approach.

Our vitreoretinal specialists diagnose and treat diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema, retinal tears and detachment, age-related macular degeneration, vitreous floaters and posterior vitreous detachment, and other retinal vascular disease. Treatment ranges from in-office injections and laser to vitreoretinal surgery for detachments and more advanced disease — matched to exactly what your retina needs, not a default protocol.

Retina care here is led by fellowship-trained specialists Dr. Renata Picciani and Dr. Drew Bawcombe, both trained in medical and surgical retina at leading fellowship programs.

Often a good fit for: diabetic eye exams, a new onset of floaters or flashes, a family history of macular degeneration, or any sudden change in your vision that needs same-week attention.