Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Dora Cantu.
Dr. Cantu grew up in a small town in West Texas, Del Rio. When she graduated High School, she left to Austin to study at the University of Texas. After completing her degree and pursuing pharmacy, she decided to apply for medical school. She was accepted into the program and found that ophthalmology was her calling. Her passions include surgery and solving problems others find difficult. With over 25 years of experience and a native Spanish speaker, she can relate to her patients and the demographic of the Houston metropolis. Her patients’ are always treated like family at Opia Vision Center. Her diagnosis and treatment are always for the better of the patient regardless of what the insurance allows. She does several pro-Bono surgeries a year to give back to those less fortunate who still require surgery. She surgery outcomes are impeccable both in cataract surgery and pterygium surgery. Her love for her patients and passion for ophthalmology is what has catapulted her to being one of the best ophthalmologists in Houston.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the biggest challenges in the past 25 years, only happened a few years ago when we were required to have “paperless” charts. Suddenly our office went from writing everything out on paper to typing everything in an EMR (Electronic Medical Record). The way we saw patients had to change. The time it took to see our patients changed. Just about everything we had done for over 20 years changed at the blink of an eye. Our cost for the program to comply was exorbitant, but it was worth it, in the end, to continue to treat patients and give them the best medical care. We strive to give the best eye care and if going paperless was the way to do it, then we were going to do it and did!
Please tell us about Opia Vision Center.
Our company Opia Vision Center, originally known as Northwest Eye Associates, has been serving the heights for over 50 years. We are a general ophthalmology practice and see everything from red-eye to glaucoma to vision loss. Opia Vision Center is blessed to have optometrists who specialize in difficult prescriptions and diagnosing medical eye diseases such as diabetes, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. This allows Dr. Cantu to focus on her passion — cataract and pterygium surgery. Dr. Cantu’s passion is also what sets us apart from others. For years Dr. Cantu has implanted the most Alcon Toric (astigmatism correcting) lenses in Houston. Her ability to take difficult cases and make them look easy is unparalleled only to her fantastic results. She has been blessed to take a legally blind man from a cataract and allow him to see 20/20 the next day! Dr. Cantu’s pterygium successes lose no steam from her cataracts. A pterygium is a growth over the cornea often known as surfer’s eye, which can only be treated by surgery. This surgery is notorious for a high rate of recurrence, meaning that once the growth is taken off it has somewhere between 30%-40% chance of growing back. However, in over 10,000 procedures Dr. Cantu has only had 2 recurrences. Besides her outstanding surgical outcomes, Dr. Cantu has been able to diagnose many body diseases and tumors from just looking at the eyes. The eyes are truly the window to the body and soul!
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Dr. Cantu’s favorite childhood memory actually comes as a cluster of memories. She competed in horseback riding and dancing competitions with four of her brothers and even went on to be the Queen of the Rodeo!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1740 West 27th St Suite 180
Houston, Texas 77008 - Website: opiavisioncenter.com
- Phone: 713-864-8652
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opiavisioncenter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OpiaVision/
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