Cornelius Mietus to Move
Longtime Montecito optometrist Cornelius Mietus has announced his relocation to San Roque after 38 years in business on Coast Village Road. “I signed my lease here in late 1980, and I can’t believe how quickly it’s flown by!” Dr. Mietus said during a recent visit to the small optometry shop.
Dr. Mietus has been providing Montecito and Santa Barbara residents optometry care – which includes fitting of contact lenses and glasses, as well as offering an assortment of designer eyeglasses and sunglasses – since February 1981; a few years after opening he began also offering vision therapy, a relatively new specialty that goes beyond the typical annual eye exam and combines precision prescribing with visual performance and perceptual testing, educational psychology, visual therapy, and modern disease detection and management.
This comprehensive approach has allowed Dr. Mietus to find a niche in the local marketplace, offering help to both kids and adults with more complex vision issues including lazy eye, reading disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, dyslexia, tracking problems, and other vision issues. He also offers rehabilitation following concussions or other traumatic injuries. “Three out of five children who are enrolled in special resource classes at school are actually suffering from correctable vision problems,” he said. “The world just doesn’t know about it yet.”
Dr. Mietus has opened a new, much larger office on upper State Street near San Roque, where he has been able to grow the Vision Therapy portion of his business. His licensed therapists, who are former schoolteachers, work with patients through a 10-week program, offering an hour of various therapeutic modalities followed by a homework assignment. He says many kids starting out in the program are unable to sustain eye contact, cannot concentrate on reading, or have problems tracking words on a page, which can be construed as Attention Deficit Disorder. Parents report great success with the program, with many kids who were held back a grade or two, being able to catch up with their classmates. “It truly turns lives around,” Dr. Mietus said, adding that his certification as a recognized Fellow of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development has led him to speak at teacher conventions and psychology workshops, teaching educators and psychologists that vision problems can be the cause of many behavioral problems. Patients come from as far away as San Luis Obispo, Westlake, and beyond to utilize Dr. Mietus’ services.
Dr. Mietus, who runs the Montecito practice with his wife, Susan Mietus, and office manager and trained optician Steve Vickery, looks forward to moving his practice to a larger space, although he says he greatly enjoyed being on Coast Village Road for so many years, watching the businesses come and go and the street evolve over nearly four decades. “I’ve really loved being here in Montecito, and I hope my patients will continue to come see me over in San Roque,” he said. The office at 1125 Coast Village Road will close at the end of this month.
The new office is located at 3710 State Street, Suite C in Santa Barbara. For more information visit www.visiontherapysb.com.
