General Practitioners

• Pediatric Care
  Dr. Steven Cress is originally from Orangeburg, SC. He received his bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Clemson University and his Doctor of Optometry in 2009 from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, TN. While earning his degree, he had an internship at a private practice in Charleston with an emphasis in primary care and pediatrics and another at the Salem VA Medical Center concentrating in ocular disease. Dr. Cress has been in the Charlotte area since 2010 and was pleased to join Waxhaw Family Vision Care OD, PLLC in 2016.
• Primary Care
• Emergency Care
  Please don't overlook the importance of safety eyewear when playing sports. Each year, hundreds of men, women, and children are injured when playing sports. To help prevent sports eye injuries, athletes should use protective athletic eyewear whether or not prescription eyewear is needed. One choice is a sports frame with prescription or non-prescription polycarbonate lenses is another choice. Baseball or softball players who are hit in or near the eye, or suffer a blow to the head, should seek immediate care at a hospital emergency room or from an eye care professional.

Ophthalmologists

• Glaucoma
  About 25% of the population are afflicted with hyperopia. Hyperopia can lead to chronic glaucoma, a more serious condition, later in life.
• Macular Degeneration
  Macular degeneration is a disease which affects a small area of the retina known as the macula. The macula is the central area of the retina that allows us to see the fine detail of whatever we look at directly. Macular degeneration occurs when the macula is damaged.
• Laser Eye Surgery
  Myopia can be accommodated and sometimes corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses. Sometimes myopia continues to gradually worsen throughout life, a condition known as myopic creep. Myopia can also be corrected by LASIK surgery.
• Cataracts
  We want to protect the eye from getting hit physically because there is a small incision in the eyeball through which we have both removed the cataract and inserted a new clear lens. In most modern cataract surgeries that incision is very small - about one-tenth of an inch in most cases. The vast majority of surgeons do not stitch the incision closed at the end of surgery. The incision is made with a bevel or flap so that the internal eye pressure pushes the incision closed.
• Cataract Surgery
  The other advantage of wearing the sunglasses is to protect your eye from bright light, especially in the first day or two when your pupil may still be fairly dilated from all the dilating drops we used prior to surgery. Even after the dilation wears off the light still seems much brighter than before your surgery. The cataracts act like internal sunglasses. The lens gets more and more opaque as the cataract worsens so it lets less and less light into the eye. Your eye gets used to those decreased light levels and when you have cataract surgery the eye instantly goes from having all the lights dimmed by the cataract to 100% of the light getting through the new clear lens implant. That takes some getting used to and the sunglasses help you adapt early on. Think of this as if you were in a dark cave for a long period of time and then were thrust out into the bright sunlight. It would be pretty uncomfortable. The sunglasses help with that adjustment.
• Eye Exam
  Even a basic eye exam can, in many cases, instantly detect such health-threatening conditions as tumors and vascular irregularities.

Psychiatrists

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  One in four children has a vision problem that affects learning — a vision problem that is often misinterpreted as disinterest, sleepiness, dyslexia or ADHD. Eyesight (the ability to receive input through the eye) is not the same as vision (the ability to understand what that input is). Recognizing this distinction has monumental implications. Even a child with 20/20 eyesight can have a vision issue at the core of their learning problem.

Endocrinologist

• Diabetes Care
• Thyroid
• Diabetic Retinopathy
  Diabetic retinopathy is a condition associated with diabetes. High levels of blood sugar can damage tiny blood vessels in the eye, causing poor circulation. This can cause small leaks in the vessels, and swelling of the retinal nerve layer. Eventually new vessels, which are very fragile, may form to replace the damaged vessels. The new vessels can burst, creating a hemorrhage, and resulting in blurred vision or even blindness.