What Can I Expect: Eye Exam?

Getting A Comprehensive Eye Exam

If you’ve never had an eye exam, or it’s been a while, you might not know what to expect before you arrive at the eye doctor’s office. The eye doctor will use a variety of tests and procedures to examine your eye health and overall vision. Some of the tests will be easy, like reading an eye chart. Others are more complex and include using high-powered lenses to look inside your eyes to view the tiny structures. Comprehensive eye exams generally take about an hour, depending on the doctor and the number of others in the office at that time. Here are some of the tests you will likely go through during an eye exam.

Visual Acuity Tests

The first test measures the sharpness of your vision. You will likely have to read an eye chart from a certain distance away to see how well you are able to see from that distance. You may hold something over one eye and then the other to test how your eyes do separately. Eyes can see at different levels and knowing how they operate alone helps the doctor know what else needs to be checked.

Tests For Color Blindness

The doctor will want to screen you to check your vision of certain colors to rule out any color blindness. If there are any other eye health problems, they might come up during this test and inform the doctor that they need to look for other things that could affect your color vision.

Eye Movement Testing

The ocular motility test is simple, and the doctor will have you follow a moving object, like a pen or their finger. Testing the eye movement is common as you hold your head still and follow the object. If you have eye strain and difficulty reading, it might come out with these eye movement tests.

Depth Perception Testing

Stereopsis describes the eyes working as a team and enabling depth perception and the ability to see the 3-D nature of objects. You might put on 3-D glasses and look at a book with test patterns in it. You will point out which circle in a group is closest or something of that nature to show that you have normal depth perception.

Retinoscopy

This test could happen early on and showcases what your eyeglass or contact prescription should be, if anything. The room will be dimmed, and you will focus on a certain letter on the eye chart on the wall. They will shine a light in your eyes and flip lenses before you and ask which lens makes the distant vision more clear.

Testing For Glaucoma

Many people dread the puff of air test, but it is important to calculate your intraocular pressure to showcase whether or not you are at risk for glaucoma. There aren’t always warning signs for glaucoma before it forms so these tests are important to protect your future eyesight.

Get The Comprehensive Eye Exam

There are other things that go into a comprehensive eye exam and some of it will depend on the doctor, how long it’s been since you’ve had an exam, and the things they see as other exams are going on. If you want to know what will happen from start to finish, contact the professionals at Redondo Optometry for more details.