Eye Examinations
A lot more happens during an eye examination than purely testing to see if you need glasses. When we examine your eyes we check for health and function. If you are a new patient to us we start off by building up a history of how your eyes have been, ask about any symptoms you may have been experiencing, and record details about your general health and well-being. For existing patients we check how this has been since your last examination with us.
During the eye examination we check how the muscles around and within the eye are functioning, and your natural (unaided) vision. We then carry out retinoscopy which enables the optometrist to ascertain your prescription without the need for you to answer questions. We refine these findings by asking you a few simple questions (the ‘clearer or more blurred’ questions). Finally we check your eyes binocularly to see how they work together.
During ophthalmoscopy (where the optometrist shines a light into your eye and gets you to look up, down, left and right) we check the health of your eye from front to back, looking for signs of any abnormalities such as cataracts. We check for glaucoma (increased pressure inside the eye) in three ways. We can see signs of glaucoma during retinoscopy, but we can also measure the pressures* and keep a record of them, and we carry out visual fields tests where we build up a ‘map’ of the receptiveness of your retina.
*The Puffer Test - We know you hate it, so we got rid of it. Our pressure testing equipment is a small hand-held device that does not puff anything at you. Most people say they don’t even feel it; those that do describe it as a light tickle.
Other tests we can perform are :
Ishihara tests - the examination of colour vision.
Stereopsis - an additional check on binocular vision.
Picture or Number test charts for those patients who are unfamiliar with letters.
Optomap® Retinal Examination - this is an additional examination Which we strongly recommend as it enables us to see so much more of the retina than with conventional examination. Click here for more details.