An eye exam is crucial in assessing the health of your vision. It usually involves a variety of tests that check your vision along with the presence of eye diseases and other risk factors. Doctors use a variety of tools, including charts, lights, and lenses to evaluate different parts of your total eye health. Here are some things you should expect during your first exam.
How to Prepare
There are different kinds of eye care professionals. Which you choose depends on what kinds of problems you might be suffering from.
Ophthalmologists: Ophthalmologists are medical doctors. They provide full range eye care services, including full eye exams, corrective lens prescription, treating eye diseases and even surgery.
Optometrists: Optometrists perform many of the same services that ophthalmologists do, including diagnosing common eye diseases and prescribing medications to deal with them. The main difference is that they do not perform eye surgery. They are an excellent choice for everyday healthcare. If they cannot help you, they’ll also be able to refer you to an ophthalmologist.
Opticians: Think of opticians as people who sell eyewear accessories. They can fill your prescription for lenses along with fitting and assembling, but they do not provide eye health screenings.
What to Expect from Your Eye Exam
As you might imagine, you can expect to have to answer questions about your eye health and total health history. Some of the questions you need to be prepared to answer include:
- Are you currently experiencing an eye issues?
- What’s your history of eye health?
- Are you taking any medications?
- Do you wear glasses or contacts? How effective are they?
- Is there any family history of eye disease (glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc.)?
- Do you have any health conditions that affect the whole body, such as high blood pressure or diabetes?
During the Exam
Your doctor will perform a series of tests to measure your vision strength. This is to evaluate whether or not you may need glasses. Your doctor may numb your eyes with drops as well as dilate them. After your eyes are dilated, your doctor will use a light to check the health of your eyes and your risk for certain diseases.
Whether you are just going in for a checkup or a particular concern will affect what types of test your doctor performs. They may do a refraction assessment, which can check for problems like nearsightedness along with color vision testing to check if a patient is colorblind.
After the Exam
Your doctor will discuss the results of your examination immediately after they’ve done all these tests. They will give you an assessment of your vision, your risk of eye disease and current health status along with prescriptive measures like lenses or medicine to clear up any eye problems. They can also clear up any questions you might have like the causes of eye irritation and what is the best type of lens for your optical needs.
Ensuring Your Vision Health with Eye Exams
Eye exams are critical tools for the health of your eyes and vision. Best of all, they can be performed quickly and with minimal discomfort to patients so you can be in and out of office in no time at all. For most people, it’s a good idea to get an exam roughly once a year to track your health, particularly if you already wear contacts or glasses. So, schedule an appointment today for a comprehensive eye exam to make sure your eyes are healthy.