Notice of an eye exam
As the eye is one of the most important parts of your body, it is essential for you to keep it in good shape. To determine whether your eyes are in good condition, the best way for you is taking regular exams which can provide you with your eyes condition. For example, if you suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure, you should take regular tests.
Generally, regular exam includes ocular muscle test which can get the information of your surrounding muscles, refraction assessment test and the visual activity test. Such kind of test can provide you with basic information of your eyes. You can figure out whether your vision is normal and whether you should do some special exercises. Your eye doctor will conduct this exam to get some basic information. Snellen’s eye chart which is placed at a distance of 20 feet away can be used for an eye test. If you could not see the letters and numbers on the chart clearly, then you should turn to Tumbling E Chart. HOTV test which puts four characters on the wall and the child should identify the correct letter is the preferred test for children.
Adults need to take compressive exams which include the tests of eye functioning, the extent of coordination of both eyes and the interior and exterior parts of the eyes. From this exam, you also can determine whether you get farsightedness, nearsightedness, depth perception problems or astigmatism. Comprehensive exams are more suitable for young children which can provide the test for symptoms of crossed eyes, determining normal color vision and extent of development of vision skills. You can also check eye-hand-foot coordination.
Before the examinations, you need to take your glasses or contact lenses, health insurance card, prescription and previous eye treatment records. You also should prepare a list of your vision problems, details of family history of health problems and any past surgery. Usually an exam can be taken in regular, but severe eye vision problems should be treated immediately.
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Some details of an eye exam
One of the important elements of medical routine is eye examination, which is quite essential to minimize eye problems possible. Imagining the world of a blind man, everyone should appreciate the wonderful earth through the eyes. Taking good care of the eyes should be an indispensible element of being healthy. Most people do not know about the details of an eye exam, not to mention those who are still unaware of the importance of it. In fact, it is necessary for eye test recipients to know the whole process of an eye exam, including which vision problems will be checked.
In general, the eye structure, potential eye diseases and vision problems are within the scope of eye tests. Opticians can take use of various ways to test a patient’s eyes. Common tools contain various degrees of light, different lenses as well as other more professional devices. Common vision problems can be easily diagnosed, while certain eye diseases only show their implicit signs. A problem detected at the earliest stage is easiest to treat and cure. During an eye test, a patient is always required to provide a brief medical history. In some cases, eye disease history of family members is also needed. The doctor will note all these aspects down for further referral.
In detail, an eye exam contains several aspects. One of them is external examination, during which flashing light will be used to check the cornea, the skin surface and so forth. Another task is to check for visual acuity. As mentioned before, this task involving lenses with different powers is performed to diagnose common vision problems such as myopia and hyperopia.
People of different ages need to receive regular eye exams in different frequencies. For young adults in their 20s or 30s, eye exams in every 7 years are acceptable. But for people older than 40, they are encouraged to take regular eye tests every 2 years. Individuals suffering healthy conditions associated with the eyesight need to be tested more frequently.
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Eye exam could give early diabetes warning
What’s the earliest way to test for Type 2 diabetes? It could be with an eye exam.
Here’s why. High resolution images like this one give ophthalmologist Dr. Alan Lacoste a unique look inside the entire body.
“By looking into the eyes we can see the blood vessels, so there’s really nowhere else on our body where you can just visibly look at the blood vessels,” said Lacoste.
Lacoste says that by examining the retina at the back of the eye, he can often times detect undiagnosed diabetes.
“One of the first things that you see are areas of bleeding right outside the blood vessels,” said Lacoste.
This condition is called “diabetic retinopathy.” Lacoste says it needs to be taken seriously.
“Even with all our technologies and abilities to treat it, more people go blind from diabetes than any other condition,” said Lacoste.
Laser surgery can help prevent further vision loss, but it’s not a cure, so early detection is key, especially for those at high risk.
“With the increased diagnosis of diabetes in our population, it’s critically important that everyone have a complete eye exam once they’re past 45 years of age every year,” said Lacoste.
And this exam should come earlier if you have a family history of the disease.
Lacoste says if current trends continue, the number of diabetic retinopathy cases will double by 2050.
Why should we have eye exam?
Eyes are the windows of human’s hearts. It’s very important to have eye exams every year or six months, because many eye problems such as cataracts, retinal problems and glaucoma offer no telltale symptoms.
Routine eye exams mainly contain several steps. The first step of an eye exam is a measure of visual acuity. Eye doctors usually use a specially designed pocket eye exam card holding at about 14 inches before patient, or a standard eye exam wall chart with a distance of 20 feet. Each eye is tested independently while the other one is covered, to confirm the smallest characters patients can read. The letters at the last column of the eye exam card provide the patient’s acuity compared with normal subjects. For example 20/200 means the patient can see at 20feet when a normal one can see at 200 feet, what indicates that the patient’s vision is very lousy. The patient can also wear his glasses to finish the same eye exams, the result are called “best corrected vision”. The second step of an eye exam is pinhole testing to determine if the eye problem is a result of refractive error. Then the observation of external structures and testing extra-ocular movements are carried out for eye exams. After that, eye doctors will use the ophthalmoscope to do closer eye exam of the outer structures of the eye and view the retina and associated structures. If needed, the eye doctor will also measure the fluid pressure in the patient’s eyes. High pressure may be a symptom of glaucoma.
Besides routine eye exams, you may also visit your eye doctor for the information of eye fashion trends or choosing eyeglasses.
Eye exam intervals and preparation
Different people should receive complete eye exams at different intervals. Children’s eyes should be examined at six months of age, three years of age, and six or seven years of age and every two years during school days, since high vision problem rates are reported among both preschool and school-aged children. For children with risk factors of vision problems such as prematurity, developmental delays, turned eyes, family history of eye diseases and history of eye injury, more frequent eye exams are necessary.
Adults at different ages need eye exams in different frequencies. Based on American Optometric Association (AOA), among people less than 40 years old, one exam every two or three years is enough for those with normal vision, while an annual exam is required for those wearing eyeglasses or contacts. People with diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders may also require more frequent eye exams. People above 40 need eye exams every one to two years and people over 60 need annual exams, in case of age-related problems such as presbyopia, cataracts and macular degeneration.
In the United States, ophthalmologists, optometrists, as well as opticians can conduct regular eye exams. Ophthalmologists are the most professional since they are exclusively licensed to perform eye surgeries. Optometrists can prescribe certain medications and minor surgical procedures, while opticians are only entitled to adjust and repair glasses, or fit your contacts.
A basic complete eye exam should contain several items: family eye history review, distance and near vision evaluation, current eye prescription determination, eye coordination evaluation and internal and external eye healthy examination. You should be clear of all these items as well as the exact charge at the time you make an appointment with your doctor. Exam fees for contact lens fitting, laser-surgery evaluation and pediatric testing are higher than that of regular exams. You should check your vision insurance benefits for potential discount, since exam fees vary widely from discount outlets to surgical offices.
For better exam results, you need to take necessary documents and cards of yourself and your family members. Your vision insurance card is needed if you want to get any discount. For your eyes full evaluation, your major medical health care cards and recent prescription glasses or contacts may be useful to provide additional eye exam aspects. A list of your prescription medications can help the doctor learn your complete health history. Of course, you can bring your interested questions.
article source:http://www.visioncarehome.com/
Eye exams are crucial for the health of eyes
Regular comprehensive eye exams are crucial for both adults and children to maintain eye health. An eye exam can help adults not only formulate and update their eyewear prescription, but also search for any sign of common eye diseases. For children, eye exams are even more important since vision is so closely related to their study. If they have poor vision or image interpretation, they are most likely to have a poor performance in their study. Parents should take children to a related professional doctor for an eye examination as soon as they get a reading or learning difficulty, in order to find out the potential vision root.
Eyewear prescription is just a small portion of an eye exam. Its more significant role is to detect initial signs of eye diseases, preventing them from developing into more severe vision problems. The following two paragraphs is a description of some items for detection.
The first eye condition is refraction error, including myopia, hyperopic and astigmatism, all of which can be corrected using eyewear or refractive surgery. The second item that may be examined is amblyopia, which refers to the uneven development of the two eyes. Once found, amblyopia can be treated by covering the disabled eye, otherwise it will lead to permanent vision loss. A third search may be given to strabismus, which is also known as crossed or turned eyes in brief. People with this disease may have an unperfect eyes alignment, which may affect their depth perception and lead to amblyopia. Properly aligned eyes do not mean healthy eyes. So, the forth item may be teaming problems of the eyes. Signs of uncoordinated eyes (also named binocular vision problems) include headaches and eyestrain. An eye doctor should also pay attention to eye focusing problems during an eye exam. These problems may bother both children (resulted from incomplete focusing skills development) and aged people due natural decline, such as presbyopia.
Another part of examination items is related to more severe eye diseases. Early detection and subsequent treatment of eye diseases are essential to minimize the risk of lifelong vision impairment. Diabetic eye diseases are common and probably cause small blood vessel leaks or bleeding eye and macula swelling. Other eye diseases or health problems include glaucoma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and so on. During eye exams, your doctor may check signs of these diseases using instruments or just by staring at your eye’s blood vessels and retina.
Vision screenings can never get the same effects from complete eye exams. A vision screening may test blur, muscle coordination and common eye diseases. These brief tests can only perform as an indicator for further eye exam, rather than replacing it. A driver’s license renewal just requires such a vision screening. Vision screenings can be conducted simply by school nurses, pediatricians, health care providers and volunteers. In contrast, a complete eye exam including all vision aspects testing must be carried out by an eye doctor, rather than incompetent family physicians and pediatricians. Only professional doctors can ensure all testing items and work out a proper personal treatment plan on the basis of the exam results.
If your doctor can not determine you eye problems, you may need to take a second exam after a period of time. For assured problems, a subsequent treatment plan will be made. Your eye doctor will prescribe different solutions for different eye problems. Corrective eyewear is commonly used for refractive errors. Binocular vision problems always require a vision therapy or strabismus surgery. For vision health maintenance or dry eyes relief, eye vitamins or vision nurture may be the right choice.