What to expect during your eye exam
What to expect during your eye exam
Have you never had an eye exam before? Are you wanting reassurance on what’s going to happen? Or are you simply curious about what is going to take 45 minutes here at Look of Australia? Well you’ve come to the right place!
Introducing our wonderful optometrists; Karlee and Tori!
So…..What actually goes on?
We start our eye exams by taking a comprehensive history of your visual symptoms and history. This also includes your general health and family history – as these are equally as important and can also impact your eyes. If you’re a new patient to our practice, we provide a new patient form to fill in.
After having a discussion about your eye concerns or routine history, we start the check by testing your vision. This can be done with and/or without your glasses, depending on the level of your vision. We then perform a refraction (the classic 1 or 2) to refine your prescription and see if you need glasses or have had any changes.
Depending on the outcome of your refraction, we have a discussion about the options for your visual needs – be that different glasses options, contact lenses and/or UV protection.
Following the vision portion of the eye exam – we move on to check your eye health thoroughly.
In those over the age of 17, we check the intraocular pressure – which can be an indicator for certain types of glaucoma. We use an Icare at Look of Australia, which comes near enough just to tickle your eyelashes…no puffs of air here!
We also assess the front of your eye. Using our specialist equipment - a slit lamp - we can have a magnified look at your eyelids, lashes and the front surface of the eye. We assess the eye for signs of lumps/bumps/UV damage. We can also assess the eye surface for dry eye.
Again with the lamp and a magnifying lens, we can then view through your pupil to assess the back of the eye. As part of the back of the eye (retina) check, we also take retinal photos in all our exams. This gives us an excellent overall view of the macula, optic nerve and blood vessels – all very important structures for our vision!
Depending on the findings, we may recommend extra checks such as dilating eye drops (allowing us to have a view of a larger area of the retina), a visual field test (peripheral vision check) and OCT scans (like an ultrasound using light of the retina).
Once we have a thorough chat about your eyes, we can make appropriate care recommendations. These can be preventative or treatment if needed. Depending on your eye care needs, we’ll recommend a timeframe for your next eye check – but we’re always here if anything comes up in the mean time!
Written by Tori Halsey
Optometrist
Thumbnail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_eye_with_blood_vessels.jpg