An eye exam helps detect eye problems at their earliest stage, when they’re most treatable. Regular eye exams give your eye care professional a chance to help you correct or adapt to vision changes and provide you with tips on caring for your eyes. And an eye exam might provide clues to your overall health.
Several factors can determine how frequently you need an eye exam, including your age, health and risk of developing eye problems. General guidelines are as follows:
Children 3 years and younger
Your child’s pediatrician will likely check your child’s eyes for healthy eye development and look for the most common childhood eye problems — lazy eye, cross-eyes or misaligned eyes. A more comprehensive eye exam between the ages of 3 and 5 will look for problems with vision and eye alignment.
School-age children and adolescents
Have your child’s vision checked before he or she enters kindergarten. Your child’s doctor can recommend how frequent eye exams should be after that.
Adults
In general, if you are healthy and you have no symptoms of vision problems, the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends having a complete eye exam at age 40, when some vision changes and eye diseases are likely to start. Based on the results of your screening, your eye doctor can recommend how often you should have future eye exams.
If you’re 60 or older, have your eyes checked every year or two.
Have your eyes checked more often if you:
Wear glasses or contact lenses
Have a family history of eye disease or loss of vision
Have a chronic disease that puts you at greater risk of eye disease, such as diabetes
Take medications that have serious eye side effects
Whether eye dilation during an exam is necessary depends on the reason for your exam, your age, your overall health and your risk of eye diseases.
The eye drops used for dilation cause your pupils to widen, allowing in more light and giving your doctor a better view of the back of your eye. Eye dilation assists your doctor in diagnosing common diseases and conditions, possibly at their earliest stages. They include:
Diabetes
High blood pressure
Macular degeneration
Retinal detachment
Glaucoma
Eye dilation also makes your vision blurry and your eyes more light sensitive, which, for a few hours, can affect your ability to drive or work. So if eye dilation is greatly inconvenient, ask your doctor about arranging another appointment.
You Could Be Having Cataract If You Have
Cloudy or foggy vision
Double vision or multiple images
Changes in the way you see colors
Glare from bright lights causing difficulty in bright sunlight or during night driving
Better near vision for a while only in farsighted people
Frequent changes in your eyeglass prescription
Glaucoma
As this disease is typically asymptomatic in a majority of patients, if you are 40 years of age, or have a family history of glaucoma you should have your eyes tested regularly.
In certain cases, you may notice a decrease in vision which may maybe accompanied by redness or pain in the eye.
If you have glaucoma, regular eye tests for pressure and the visual field, and taking your eye treatment properly can prevent permanent irreversible blindness.
Diabetic Retinopathy
An eye with marked changes of diabetic retinopathy can have good vision and be totally free of symptoms.
Hence it is important for all diabetics to undergo regular eye check-up including retinal examination through dilated pupils especially for people who have been diabetic for a number of years.
Retinal Tears & Detachment
If you notice the sudden appearance of light flashes, or a large number of floaters in your vision, it may be suggestive of a tear in your retina and you should visit your ophthalmologist immediately.
Myopes (near sighted persons), aphakics (people who have undergone cataract surgery), those with a family history of retinal detachment are more prone to developing retinal degeneration, holes and tears, and subsequently retinal detachment. These groups of patients must undergo regular and thorough retinal examination by indirect ophthalmoscopy at least once annually.
First, wash and dry your hands thoroughly.
Check you have the correct bottle, and make sure you know which eye the drops are to go in.
Turn the bottle cap anticlockwise to pierce the dropper.
Stand in front of the mirror, sit in a chair, or lie down, which ever is best for you.
Take the top off the bottle, lean your head back, and look up at the ceiling.
Pull down your lower eyelid and squeeze a drop into you eye, taking care not to ouch the eye with the tip of the bottle.
Close your eyes for 2 minutes, and wipe gently with a clean tissue, if necessary.
Put the top on firmly back on the bottle and put in a safe place.
Finally, wash your hands again.
Remember:
Do not share your drops with anyone else.
Do not use needles or safety pins to pierce the dropper, as these may introduce infectious agents within the bottle.
Bottles of eye drops should only be used for four weeks after opening.
It may help to write on the label, the date you open the bottle.
It may also help to identify different drops by sticking a colored label on the bottle.
Your drops can be kept in the fridge but do not freeze them.
You can get more drops on prescription of your eye doctor.
Use drops in the frequency and for the duration recommended by your eye specialist.
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Loewm Ipsum
Loewm Ipsum
