subject: What Is An Eye Exam? [print this page] There is a saying that eyes are the windows of humans hearts. Its very important for you to have your eye examined every year, because many eye problems such as cataracts, glaucoma and retinal problems may offer no telltale symptoms. The purpose of eye exam is to check out peoples vision and eyes health condition, to see if there are any changes or diseases that need eye care or cure.
During the appointment, several steps will be carried out for Routine eye exams, and each of the steps analyzes one or many aspects of your vision and eyes condition.
If it is a new eye doctor or its the first time you experience an eye exam, your eye doctor will ask about your eye medical history before the eye exam. A thorough eye exam mainly consists of the acuity, appearance, function, and health of a person's vision and eyes.
The first step of an eye exam is a measure of visual acuity to see whether the patient needs corrective lenses. A specially designed pocket eye exam card will be used during the eye exam, being held at about 14 inches before patient, or a standard eye exam wall chart with a distance of 20 feet. Patients can also finish the same eye exams wearing their glasses with the result referred to as best corrected vision.
Each eye is tested independently while the other one is covered, to confirm the smallest characters it can read. If you cant see chart clearly, the second step of an eye exam is pinhole testing to determine if the eye problem is a result of refractive error. Following are the visual field test and color vision testing.
Then, the observations of external parts of the eye using a light and testing extra-ocular movements are carried out. Sometimes, eye doctors will do closer eye exam of the outer eye structures and view the retina and associated structures using the ophthalmoscope. According to your specific needs, age, and pre-existing conditions, the fluid pressure of the eyes may also be measure to see if there is any risk of getting glaucoma.
