The Need for Regular Eye Exams in The Eye Institute

If your vision checked out okay in a few cursory tests during your school years, you might wonder why it’s so important to keep scheduling eye exams at The Eye Institute. The fact is that your eyes change over the years, and those changes are often for the worse. Changes in the ways your eyes refract light may require adjustments to your corrective lens prescription, for instance, while changes in your underlying health may cause dry eye. The leading causes of blindness — diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and cataracts — typically develop over time, often so gradually that substantial changes have occurred before you’re aware of vision loss. Since these changes are permanent and irreversible, you need to know about them as soon as possible so they can be controlled early in their development.

How an Eye Institute Optometrist Checks Your Eyes

The Eye Institute optometrists may recommend bi-annual, annual or even more frequent eye exams depending on your age, current eye condition, and overall health. We use a variety of simple, painless eye function tests to check how well your eyes are teaming and tracking, focusing and processing visual information.

What to Expect
During your comprehensive eye exam, you will first sit down at multiple machines, each performing a different test of your overall eye health. We will ask you to remove contacts and glasses during this time. (If you dislike the “air puff,” fear not! We have updated technology and now perform that test differently.)

These tests help us understand whether you are experiencing eye health problems that may later impede your vision. They take only a few minutes to complete and include:

• Meibography which will show the status of your Meibomian Glands.  These are the glands responsible for keeping the eye comfortable.
• Optos Retinal Imaging. Checking the retina for optic nerve diseases. We no longer have to dilate your eyes!
• Using a pressure-measuring technique called tonometry to see whether you’re at risk for glaucoma.
• Keratometry which measures the curves of your eyes, helping us choose the best contact lens fit and screen for certain conditions.
• Viewing the corneas, lenses and other eye structures with an illuminated instrument called a slit lamp.

Once those tests are complete, your eye doctor will perform vision tests. This includes reading from the famous eye chart with both eyes open or one covered. The different sizes of text of the eye chart represent different distance ranges. If the text appears fuzzy on particular lines, you may have a refractive error such as farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism or presbyopia. As you keep reading the chart through a viewing device called a phoropter, we will administer different corrective combinations until we find your ideal corrective lens prescription.

Call Our Optometrists at The Eye Institute for an Exam

Give your eyes a lifetime of care, and they will reward you with a lifetime of clear vision. Start today by calling 919-266-2048 and scheduling a comprehensive eye and vision exam from our optometrists at The Eye Institute.