General Eye Exams

GENERAL EYE EXAMS

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO SEE YOUR

OPTOMETRIST

Just as it is important to visit your medical doctor for a yearly check-up it is equally important to have routine eye examinations with your optometrist on a regular basis. Certain medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure may require you to see your optometrist more frequently to ensure your vision is not decreasing due to your physical health. Notable risk factors include a higher rate in the development of Glaucoma for those that are over the age of 40, heredity or history of eye disease in your family or even some prescription medications may affect your vision.

Glaucoma as an example is referred to as “The Silent Thief” because it slowly robs you of vision until detected by your eye care specialist during a complete examination. Cataracts also tend to go unnoticed because the symptoms occur slowly and over a period of time. Your vision with cataracts will began to gradually decrease and you may find you are changing eyeglass prescriptions more often. Once diagnosed by your optometrist the cataracts can be safely, quickly and painlessly removed for good.

We suggest that you make good vision as much a part of your health plan as you would your scheduled visits to your doctor or dentist. Healthy vision promotes a healthy lifestyle.

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WHAT HAPPENS IN AN EYE EXAMINATION

An eye muscle movement test: To test muscle action and control, the optometrist will ask you to visually track a target in different directions and observe your eye movements.
Cover test: This is a check for how well your eyes work together. As you stare at a small target some distance away, the optometrist will cover and uncover each eye to observe how much your eyes move, watching for an eye that turns away from the target (strabismus). The test may be repeated with a target close to you.
External exam and pupillary reactions: The optometrist will watch the reactions of your pupils to light and objects at close distance. At the same time, the optometrist will check the exterior eye, looking at things such as the condition of the white of the eyes and the position of your eyelids.
Visual acuity test: You'll sit in front of an eye chart, with letters that get smaller as you read down each line. You cover each eye in turn and, using the other eye, read aloud, going down the chart, until you can't read the letters anymore.
Retinoscopy: The optometrist may shine a light in your eyes and flip lenses in a machine (phoropter) that you look through while staring at a large target, such as a big "E". By checking the way light reflects from your eyes, the optometrist gets an approximate idea of the lens prescription you need now.
Refraction testing: For your exact lens prescription, the optometrist may fine-tune the prescription manually by asking you to respond to questions such as, "Which is better, this or that?" while flipping back and forth between different lenses. If you don't need corrective lenses, you won't have this test.
Slit lamp (biomicroscope): The slit lamp magnifies and lights up the front of your eye. The eye doctor uses it to detect several eye diseases and disorders by examining your cornea, iris, lens, and anterior chamber.
Retinal examination (ophthalmoscopy): Using an ophthalmoscope along with a retinal photography instrument, the optometrist examines the back of your eyes: retina, retinal blood vessels, vitreous, and optic nerve head. For some patients this will require dilation of the pupils.
Intra-Ocular pressure (IOP) test: This is a measure of the fluid pressure inside each eye. It will initially be screened by an i-care instrument which provides a measure of the IOP by lightly and gently touching the front of the eye with a sterile probe. The contact is so light many patients are unaware something touched their eye. Should the pressure measurements require more in-depth assessment then tonometry is performed as this is considered the most accurate, gold-standard method of IOP measurement. Tonometry involves drops numbing your eyes, you stare directly ahead, and the optometrist gently touches the front surface of each eye with an instrument to measure the pressure. These measures are then calibrated by adjusting for corneal thickness.
Pupil dilation (enlargement): With your pupils fully enlarged, the optometrist will examine the inside of your eyes with different instruments and lights. This is an on-indication test and not performed on every eye examination. The pupil-enlarging drops for this part of your eye exam start to work after about 20-30 minutes, making your eyes more sensitive to light and blurring your vision. These effects may last for several hours or longer so it's important to bring a pair of sunglasses to your exam for the ride home.
Visual field test : Your visual field is the area you can see in front of you without moving your eyes. Using one of three tests, the eye doctor "maps" what you see at the edges (periphery) of your visual field, using this map to ensure your visual fields are full and have normal sensitivity.
Ocular coherence topography : (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging test. OCT uses light waves to take cross-section pictures of your retina. With OCT, we are able to see each of the retina’s distinctive layers. This allows your optometrist to map and measure their thickness. These measurements help to ensure your retina and optic nerve has a normal structural appearance, and assists diagnosis and management plans in cases where there maybe pathology present.
Glaucoma testing: This involves a series or combination of above tests: Intra-Ocular Pressure, Visual Field Test, Retinal Examination, Ocular Coherence Topography, Colour Vision and Visual Acuity recordings.