WHY ARE ROUTINE EYE EXAMS NEEDED?
When we are young or in peak physical condition, we often tend to overlook having our eye health checked. However, this shouldn’t be the case as eye problems can present at any age or physical fitness level and early indicators of your overall health can manifest in your eye exam.
76% of low vision causes in Australia are preventative ie. early detection is key. For this reason, we at CORE OPTIQUE believe in preventative rather than treatment-based eye care to optimise everyone’s vision, general health and quality of life.
We recommend annual or biannual eye exams for all age groups from 4 years of age upwards.
The Exam:
Each eye test can vary slightly depending on your age or individual concerns/needs, but most commonly include these tests:
● Visual Acuity: This is a test to measure the sharpness of your vision.
● Refraction: This finds your prescription, which may or may not need to be made into glasses
● Colour Vision: A screening test to rule out colour vision deficiencies
● Cover Test: This will test the alignment of your eyes and how well they move together.
● Ocular Motility or Eye Movements: This determines how well your eyes can follow a moving object as well as fixate on different targets. Issues with eye movement can cause eye strain and lead to difficulties in reading.
● Glaucoma: This involves several tests including measuring the thickness of your optic nerve, pressure inside your eyes and your peripheral field of vision.
● Retinal Photography: High resolution digital photographs of the back of your eye (retina) are taken on each visit in order to be able to accurately detect and document any subtle changes over time for early detection of any retinal concerns
● Slit Lamp Exam: The optometrist will examine the front and back structures of your eyes to detect a wide range of eye conditions and diseases including blepharitis, cataracts, macular degeneration, corneal ulcers and diabetic retinopathy
Patient-specific Exams:
● Children
Children should have regular eye tests because impaired vision can impact a child’s ability to learn and grow academically and socially. Children today have started using digital devices before they start walking and extended use of these screens can cause eye strain or tiredness. Furthermore, amblyopia and/or strabismus (often known as ‘lazy eye’) are conditions that are often treatable only with early detection so annual eye exams are crucial.
● Vocational
The visual demands of our daily and weekly life are ever-changing with increased screen-time and variable work environments. Each individual has specific visual needs and comprehensive eye exams allow us to tailor to these with optimal results.
● Eye health and aging
As you grow older, regular eye exams are essential as adults are increasingly prone to diseases that may cause blindness or other serious eye-related issues. Eye exams can detect key early indicators of common causes of blindness such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration to prevent any potential irreversible vision loss.
Do you need glasses?
Following your comprehensive eye examination, we are able to determine what optical appliances you will need based on your visual demands. We will also advise you of any eye health conditions you may have, what eye health conditions you are at risk of developing and recommendations to help alleviate or ameliorate these eye conditions including advice on visual hygiene, diet, modifiable health risk factors and your next advisable comprehensive eye exam.
With the ever-changing society we live in with constant advances in technology and changing visual demands, glasses are, more than ever, not a one size fits all solution. In fact, multiple pairs for specific tasks, or multi-purpose lenses for office wear, sports, music/opera, sailing and lecturing are becoming increasingly more popular as effective solutions to daily visual concerns.
Contact lenses are available for sports, everyday wear, for studying, work, swimming and holidays.
At CORE OPTIQUE, we keep on top of the latest lens styles and technologies to ensure you are always provided with the best optical solution for your individual needs.
For any further enquiries or bookings click the link below!