COMPREHENSIVE EYE EXAM

What Is A Comprehensive Eye Exam?

First, it is important to understand that a comprehensive eye exam is not just a simple vision screening. Instead, a comprehensive eye exam utilizes a number of different tests to determine your prescription strength and the health of your eyes and vision in general. The comprehensive test can determine if there are any immediate risks to your health and also help you understand how to change your current routine to protect your vision for the future better.
Patient Background – One of the most important things to consider is your background. This includes your medical history and family history. There are a number of issues that are genetic in nature. Understanding if you have a higher likelihood can help us determine if there are additional tests that we should complete or specific things to look for. Additionally, your own medical history helps us better understand any issues in the past and how that could affect your vision. Diabetes is an important factor in considering your future vision risks.

Visual Acuity – This test utilizes the Snellen Eye Chart, which is the chart you generally see on the wall that has larger letters at the top, and each row becomes progressively smaller. This chart allows us to get a quick understanding of how well you can currently see. The results of this test are expressed in a format such as 20/20, which means that you can see as well as the average person. 20/40 is a vision that means that you can see an object 20 feet away, where the average person with good vision can see the same object at 40 feet.

Refraction – For patients who cannot see clearly, the refraction test will help determine what your actual prescription-strength should be in order to get you to see with 20/20 vision. This test can help to correct the refractive error for nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism.

Retinoscopy – This test can be used to help aid in determining your prescription strength. The test uses a retinoscope that shines a light into your eye and then measures the reflex of the light from your eye to calculate the appropriate prescription.

Eye Focusing and Teaming – These are a series of tests that see how well your eyes function both independently and together. The test is used to make sure that your eyes track together around your entire field of vision, and that the structures of each eye are working appropriately to focus the light entering the eye.

Eye Health – There are a number of other tests that can be used to determine your overall eye health. These tests are used to evaluate each of the different structures of the eye to ensure that they are healthy and functioning properly.

Your eyes are very complex, and it takes a number of different parts of your eye to help properly interpret the picture for your brain. If any of the systems within your eye are not completely healthy, your vision may suffer.

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