New England Eye Center

The doctors here seem to be high caliber, but my ongoing gripe is that they want to dilate my eyes every time I’m there for an exam. I’m blonde with blue eyes that are VERY sensitive to light — I wear sunglasses on cloudy days — and in the past, eye doctors have provided me with drops that reverse the dilation drops. This allows me to both read and go outside after an eye exam without waiting for two hours for my pupils to normalize. But NEEC does not offer these reverse-​dilation drops. I have asked for them every time I’ve been examined there, and the doctors just shrug and say no, they don’t have them. WELL THEN GET THEM!!! I really struggle to see how any medical practice can refuse to provide their patients with something to make the examination more comfortable, and instead force them to get home or back to the office while in pain from the light and unable to see clearly. I refuse to allow them to dilate my eyes without these drops, and they refuse to supply these drops, so I will be finding another eye doctor.

my primary motivation for choosing neec is that i hate the typical cozy arrangement biz relationship between an optometrist and the retail eyeglass business… if you see the doctor you get massive pressure to buy your glasses then and there, despite their prices or selection.
that’s not a problem here, as the retail eyewear operation is three floors away.
FYI: this is a big and impersonal operation, more like a visit to a hospital outpatient ward than an eye doctors.
yet my exam was efficient, thorough, and professional, i.e., three stars.

I went to bed with a red eye emitting green discharge and woke up to more of the same, yuck! What’s a girl to do? I declared myself in a state of eye emergency and called my local ophthalmologist, whose answering service led me here. Other than a cranky, rude receptionist, the experience was perfect. The on-​call doctor called me back within ten minutes, discussed my symptoms with me, and invited me to come in to see him as soon as I could. An hour later, I was in his office, and he was patiently tolerating my flinching dislike of having my eyes examined. The whole episode was painless, unlike the French farce that seeking emergency medical care can sometimes be and that I had anticipated. To top it off, he didn’t make me feel bad for getting all worked up over what turned out to be pink eye.