Our eyes are our windows to the world. Yet, we often take their health for granted. That’s why it’s important to get comprehensive eye exams on a regular basis as your eye doctor recommends.
It is recommended that both school-aged kids and most adults have a comprehensive eye exam annually, in order to keep your eyes healthy, because there are many treatable eye conditions and diseases that do not present with any pain or noticeable vision loss, at least not until much later.
Understanding Comprehensive Eye Exams
It’s important to understand the various components of a comprehensive eye examination to understand refraction testing during the eye exam. These eye exams, like a detective, uncover clues about your health. Here’s what your eye doctor is looking for:
- Visual Acuity Test: This is where you read off an eye chart with different sizes of letters. It assesses how clearly each eye can see.
- Preliminary Tests: These tests check your color vision, depth perception, peripheral vision, and how your pupils respond to light.
- Eye Focusing, Teaming, and Movement Testing: This trio of tests examines how well your eyes focus, work together binocularly, and track objects. It’s all about ensuring your eyes are in harmony.
- Keratometry/Topography: These tests measure the curvature and shape of the front surface of your eye, the cornea, looking for any abnormalities. This testing is crucial in determining the best fitting contact lenses.
- Eye Health Evaluation: Your doctor looks closely at your eye’s internal and external health by using special equipment—screening for diseases even before symptoms exist.
Your eye doctor may not perform each one of these tests during every comprehensive eye examination. The optometrist will tailor the exam to each person’s unique needs. For example, the eye doctor may spend more time examining the eye’s surface and eyelids, looking for causes of conditions such as dry eyes, if someone wants to wear contacts.
Refraction Testing During an Eye Exam
Refraction or vision testing is often what people envision when they think of an eye exam, but it consists of only a small part of a comprehensive eye exam. The core of the refraction test involves a patient’s active participation in choosing between the clearer of two lenses presented, subjectively guiding the optometrist in determining their own prescription. Those results are always compared to an objective reading, obtained from an automated scan involving an infrared laser beam emitted from an autorefractor.
The eye doctor uses an instrument called a phoropter, which is placed in front of the patient’s eyes. The phoropter contains different lenses of various powers and is used to systematically determine the best lens strength for one’s eyeglass prescription.
The primary purpose of refraction testing is to identify refractive errors in the eye, which affect the eye’s ability to focus light accurately on the retina, the sensory layer in the back of the eye. These errors include:
- Myopia (Nearsightedness): Myopia is characterized by difficulty seeing distant objects clearly, where the eye has grown too long. This refractive error often develops during childhood, and it can lead to serious sight-threatening complications later in life if allowed to develop into high myopia. There are now FDA-approved therapeutic lenses, which help to slow the progression of myopia.
- Hyperopia (Farsightedness): Hyperopia is an issue involving more difficulty seeing close objects clearly, where the eye has grown too short.
- Astigmatism: Astigmatism, or a football-shaped eye, can cause distorted or blurred vision at any distance, due to an irregularly shaped cornea and/or lens. This can cause glare, especially when driving at night.
- Presbyopia: Presbyopia is an age-related difficulty in seeing near objects. This occurs when the eye’s crystalline lens, responsible for focusing to see things up close, becomes less flexible and typically emerges, progressively, after age 40.
Importance of Regular Eye Exams
You might wonder, why fix what isn’t broken? Well, early detection is your best friend regarding your eye health. Conditions like glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and macular degeneration can lurk in the shadows, symptomless in their early stages. Regular eye exams shine a light on these conditions, allowing for early intervention and treatment.
Your Eye Exam FAQs Answered
Here are a few more questions answered about comprehensive eye exams.
Are Exams Just for Updating an Eyeglass Prescription?
While updating a prescription to keep your vision clear is part of why you should get a comprehensive eye exam, that isn’t the only reason. Regular eye exams are also useful for early detection of sight-threatening vision problems and diseases, enabling prompt treatment before more serious consequences may develop.
Can You Skip an Eye Exam If You Don’t Have Any Issues?
Eye conditions like glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy often start with little to no symptoms at all. As such, you may not even know that there is a problem, especially if your vision initially remains unaffected. It’s important not to skip your recommended annual eye exams.
Do Eye Exams Hurt?
You shouldn’t experience any pain during an eye exam, as it is non-invasive. You should tell your eye doctor if you are experiencing any pain or discomfort during any part of the exam.
Book Your Next Eye Exam
Eye doctors gain a comprehensive understanding not only of your refractive error, including precise corrective eyeglass lenses, through refraction testing, but also the overall health of our eyes by using other diagnostic technologies and equipment during a comprehensive eye exam.
Call our team to book an appointment at Eye Love Optometry today. One of our experienced optometrists can examine your eyes and perform thorough testing to determine whether you are at risk of developing any eye problems in the future, especially if they are preventable.
