Why You Shouldn’t Push An Eye Exam Off Of Your To-Do List

Regular eye exams are extremely important despite your physical health or your age. In the eye exam process, your optometrist will examine your eyes to decide if you need a prescription and what prescription you need. They will also evaluate your eyes for common eye diseases, and check to see how your eyes work together. The health of your eyes can determine your general health.

Eye Problems Observed

Along with checking your vision for whether you are nearsighted, farsighted, or if you have an astigmatism, your optometrist will check your eyes for additional problems.

You will be checked for problems such as amblyopia, a decrease in corrected vision in one eye due to a large difference in prescription or strabismus. Strabismus, where your eyes are crossed, eye teaming and other focusing problems will also be checked during the eye exam.

Eye Diseases Observed

Your eye exam will also monitor for eye diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. These diseases show no symptoms in early stages. Glaucoma causes damage to the optic nerve that delivers information from the eye to the brain, and diabetic retinopathy threatens damage to the retina causing possible blindness. If these diseases are diagnosed early enough, they can be treated to limit the chance of permanent vision loss.

Vision Screening Vs. Full Eye Exam

A vision screening is an eye test that is used to help identify people who are at risk for eye issues; they determine whether or not you need to go a step further and get an eye exam. This vision screening is also done when you get your drivers’ license updated. Since vision screenings are very common and do not go into depth completely, consistent eye exams are still extremely important to receive.

An actual eye exam is carried out by a professional optometrist, carefully testing all features of your vision, and deciding what treatment, if any, is needed. Along with checking for eye diseases, you will also be checked for eye muscle imbalance and other vision disorders. Most regular family doctors are not fully trained in the field of optometry, and can possibly miss important problems.

What to Expect During an Eye Exam

The first step in your eye exam process will be to fill out forms, such as a medical history form that you fill out at most doctor visits. You will then, most likely, go over it with your doctor for them to better understand possibilities for eye problems. Next, you will probably go over the classic Snellen chart, viewing big to almost microscopic letters, in order to get a better read on your vision. While viewing the chart, your doctor will shine a light in your eyes, and then go over a range of different prescriptions asking which one shows a better vision for you in each eye. Your optometrist will then probably test color blindness by showing you a series of cards with colored dots making up numbers.

One of the most common tests for glaucoma is the puff test, which will measure the fluid pressure of your eyes. The doctor will just push a quick puff of air into your eyes. To get a closer look next, your doctor might dilate your eyes to make your pupils bigger. Lastly, they may zoom in using a bio microscope. All of these things done will lead to being able to check for a number of different eye conditions.

Symptoms That You Need to Get Your Eyes Examined

Dry, red, itchy, or seeing flashes of light, spots, or even floaters can be very crucial to your eye health, and need to be checked out by an optometrist as soon as possible. It is also important to get an eye exam if you have headaches, blurred vision, dizzy spells, constant motion sickness, and if you have problems driving at night and seeing street signs.

If you cannot remember the last time you had an eye exam, you are probably pass due for your next eye exam. Conditions, such as glaucoma, or diabetes, as mentioned before, lead to the need eye exams more often. If there is family history in eye diseases, it is also important to get your eyes checked often.

Those Who Need an Eye Exam

Annual eye exams, being a very important aspect of your overall health, are important for everyone to get. It is crucial for children to receive eye exams to the monitor their overall development. Being adjacent to the learning process for children, an unclear vision can often have a bad effect on their schoolwork. If your child has a problem with reading, or is struggling with other learning problems, then it is possible they are struggling with vision. Very often, a child will not complain about their sight because they do not know what is normal.

Adults need to receive eye exams to check for early eye disease symptoms. This way, they can receive the treatment they need as soon as any issues are detected creating a lessened chance of vision loss. Overtime, an adult’s vision may worsen, so consistent eye exams are needed to update prescriptions when needed. In the meantime, make sure you do whatever it takes to keep your eyes healthy.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or how old you are, it is still extremely important to receive your annual eye exam for early detection or to better your vision. This will also be your chance to talk to your optometrist about any concerns about common eye disorders, such as redness, swelling, itching, burning, trauma, pain, floaters, or blurry vision. If you are ready to take the much needed step of booking your annual exam, then it is time to call one of our optometry offices in JAX where you will receive the highest level service and product quality.