Improving the Quality of Eye Care

An eye test helps describe eye problems at their foremost stage — when they ’re most treatable. Regular eye examinations give your eye care professional a chance to help you correct or acclimatize to vision changes and give you with tips on minding for your eyes.

Several factors may determine how constantly you need an eye test, including your age, health and threat of developing eye problems. General guidelines are as follows

Children 5 years and younger:

For children under 3, your pediatrician will probably look for the most common eye problems — lazy eye, crossed eyes or turned-out eyes. Depending on your child’s amenability to cooperate, he or she could under go a more-comprehensive eye test between the periods of 3 and 5.

School age children and adolescents:

Have your child’s vision checked before he or she enters first grade. However, have his or her vision rechecked every year, if your child has no symptoms of vision problems and no family history of vision problems. Else, schedule eye examinations grounded on the advice of your eye doctor.

Three kinds of eye specialists may perform an eye exam:

• Ophthalmologists: are medical doctors who provide full eye care, such as giving you a complete eye exam, prescribing corrective lenses, diagnosing and treating complex eye diseases, and performing eye surgery.
• Optometrists: provide  services such as evaluating your vision, prescribing corrective lenses, diagnosing common eye disorders.
• Opticians: Opticians fill prescriptions for eyeglasses, including assembling, fitting and selling them. Some opticians also sell contact lenses.

If you wear contact lenses or glasses, bring them along. Your eye doctor will want to make sure your prescription is the best one for you. Also be prepared to remove your contacts or glasses during the exam. Tests that use dye (fluorescein) to temporarily color your eyes may permanently discolor your contact lenses, so you’ll be asked to remove them for those tests.

If your eyes are dilated as a part of your eye exam, you may want to bring sunglasses to wear after your eye exam is complete, as daylight or other bright lights may be uncomfortable or cause blurred vision. Also, consider having someone else drive you home.

An eye exam usually involves these steps:

• You’ll be asked about your medical history and any vision problems you might be experiencing.
• Your eye doctor checks your visual acuity to see if you need glasses or contact lenses to improve your vision.
• The doctor will check the eye pressure using anesthetic drops.
• Your eye doctor checks the health of your eyes, possibly using several lights to evaluate the front of the eye and inside of each eye. To make it easier for your doctor to examine the inside of your eye, he or she will likely dilate your eyes with eyedrops.
• Your eye doctor discusses what he or she found during the exam and answers questions you have about your eyes.

Part of the examination, such as taking your medical history and the initial eye test, may be performed by a clinical assistant.

Several different tests may be performed during the eye exam. The tests are designed to check your vision and to examine the appearance and function of all parts of your eyes.