Preventative and routine eye examinations are important in the maintenance of good eye health at all ages. At SeeRite, we provide comprehensive eye care to the whole family. We will see patients as young as a few months old, and then annually or bi-annually from 3 years old onward depending on your medical and/or ocular history.
Children and/or adults with existing vision problems or the following risk factors should have their eyes examined more frequently:
- Premature birth or low birth weight
- Developmental delays
- Turned or crossed eyes
- History of eye injury, concussion or traumatic brain injury
- Wearing contact lenses
- Other physical illness or disease
- Known or suspected neurodevelopmental disorders
- Systemic health conditions with potential ocular manifestations
- Taking certain prescription or non-prescription medications (e.g., over the counter medications, supplements, herbal remedies) with potential ocular side effects
- Family history of eye disease, myopia, amblyopia, strabismus, retinoblastoma, congenital cataracts, metabolic or genetic disease
Vision Testing
The visual acuity test is the first part of an eye exam and involves measuring how well each eye is seeing by reading letters, numbers or pictures off of an eye chart. Although vision is performed by the eyes, the images are put together and made sense of by the brain and is thus subjective. As such, a series of questions are asked to refine your glasses or contact lens prescription. In the case of a child or non-verbal patient, this subjective part of the refraction is not performed and the glasses prescription is based off of objective findings and a technique performed by the doctor called retinoscopy.
Ocular Function and Eye Teaming
Eye health is more than just vision testing. How your eyes function together as a team is also evaluated during your eye exam, and is especially important for school-aged children and young adults as it can impact learning if our eyes do not work together properly.
The following symptoms may warrant binocular vision testing:
- Poor or short attention span
- Headaches
- Frequent blinking
- Avoiding reading
- Tilting the head to one side
- Losing one’s place while reading
- Words “swimming on the page”
- Double vision
- Poor reading comprehension
Ocular and Systemic Health Exam
Your eye is the only place in your whole body that your blood vessels can be viewed in plain sight. By dilating your eyes with drops that make your pupils larger, your optometrist can evaluate your eyes for diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, retinal detachment, and other common diseases and conditions. Our high-tech equipment is also capable of evaluating the optic nerve and retinal tissue which can be damaged with macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and other neurodegenerative disorders. These dilating drops have the side effect of making you sensitive to the light and blurry up close for approximately 3-4 hours.
Contact us to schedule a comprehensive eye exam.