Overview: Your Eye Doctor Visit
Congratulations, you've made the decision to make an eye doctor visit. It's actually a huge step in caring for your vision as well as your general health.
Though the processes and procedures involved in visiting eye doctors and getting an eye exam is similar for everyone, the process of examining your visual acuity (sharpness), visual ability, and then using different machines and procedures to examine the health of your eyes, is as individual as you are. So too are the solutions provided by your eye doctor.
Over time, your vision and overall health changes. That, more than anything, is why there's a general procedure to follow during an eye exam, and why it's important to visit your eye doctor. Without regular eye doctor visits, these critical changes in vision and eye health may go unnoticed.
An eye doctor visit is a process.
You can expect an eye doctor visit to last about an hour or so, depending upon whether or not you'll need to have your pupils dilated with special drops to allow your eyecare professional to fully analyze the internal structure of the eye. There are new technologies available that replace dilation, but you'll need to ask your eye doctor if something like that would be right for you.
Your eye doctor visit starts with a review of your eye exam history, and any visible changes in your sight, your lifestyle, and any changes in your medical condition that may affect your vision. (This includes knowing all medications you're taking.)
Then you'll undergo simple visual acuity tests designed to check your overall vision, near vision, and side vision. These tests may reveal vision errors that need correction; errors that usually direct your exam toward special equipment used to accurately determine your prescription. But expect even more out of your visit to the eye doctor – because correcting vision and maintaining good eye health do require additional, regularly performed tests.
Visit regularly.
Visiting your eye doctor regularly is the only reliable way to maintain healthy sight and possibly prevent mild to serious eye diseases.
This is especially true for or children, teens, and seniors. An exam once every two years – or more frequently if you currently have eye disease, are at risk or have diabetes, or are approaching stages in life that put you at risk for age-related eye disease – is your eye's best friend. And yours.