Eye care begins with a routine eye examination, regardless of your age or physical health. Because diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, elevated cholesterol, thyroid disease, and even certain medications can impact your vision and the health of your eyes, it’s important to have an examination on a regular basis.
During a complete eye exam with Kentucky Eye Care, your eyes will be dilated in order to widen the pupil of the eye so that our doctors can thoroughly check for common eye diseases and assess how your eyes work together as a team.
Our doctors use a wide variety of tests and procedures during a routine examination. These tests range from simple ones, like having you read an eye chart, to complex tests, such as using a high-powered lens to visualize the tiny structures inside of your eyes. Regardless, when you have an eye exam, it will usually take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half or more, depending on the tests required.
Cover Test
While there are many ways for your doctor to check how your eyes work together, the cover test is the simplest and most common. As you stare at a small target some distance away, an ophthalmic technician will cover and uncover each eye to observe how much your eyes move, watching for an eye that turns away from the target (strabismus). The test may be repeated with a target close to you.
Visual Acuity Test
Your technician will sit you in front of an ordinary eye chart with letters that get smaller as you read down each line. They will cover each eye and ask you to read aloud, with your other eye, going down the chart until you can’t read the letters anymore.
Confrontational Visual Field Test
Our technicians also check for the possible presence of blind spots (scotomas) in your peripheral or “side” vision by performing a confrontational visual field test. The technician will ask cover one of your eyes and ask you to stare at the examiner. They will then move their hand out of your field of vision and then bring it back in. You will be asked to signal when their hand comes back into view.
Slit-Lamp Examination
The slit lamp is an instrument that our doctors use to examine the health of your eyes. The slit lamp, also called a biomicroscope, allows the doctor to get a highly magnified image of the structures of the eye in order to thoroughly evaluate them for signs of infection or disease.
During this test the doctor will have you place your chin on the chin rest of the slit lamp and will then shine the lamp’s light at your eye. The doctor looks through a set of oculars (much like a microscope) and examines each part of the eye in turn. Your doctor will first examine the structures of the front of the eye (lids, cornea, conjunctiva, iris, etc.). Then, with the help of a special high-powered lens, he or she will view the inside of the eye (retina, optic nerve, macula and more). A whole range of eye conditions and diseases can be detected with slit-lamp examination, including cataracts, macular degeneration, corneal ulcers, and diabetic eye disease.
Has it been a while since your last eye exam? Request an appointment and see why the care you’ll receive with us is anything but routine.
