May is Healthy Vision Month, and that makes it a great time for the team of expert ophthalmologists at Retina Specialists to discuss the importance of comprehensive dilated eye exams. If you’re wondering how often you should be getting these exams, keep reading.
More than just a vision screening, with a comprehensive eye exam, your ophthalmologist examines the inner and outer structures of your eyes to make sure everything is healthy and normal. If you keep to a regular schedule of these exams, the doctor can also detect problems when they’re just getting started, are easier to treat, and have better outcomes.
The doctor dilates your eyes for the exam to help them examine everything from the very front to the very back. Your close-up vision will remain blurry for about six hours or so after they put in the drops, so you’ll need to get a ride home.
To understand what your ophthalmologist looks for during a comprehensive eye exam, it helps to know a bit about the eye’s anatomy. The easiest way to visualize it is to trace the path light takes.
At the very front of the eye is the cornea, a clear, curved membrane that both protects the eye and serves to focus the incoming light. Light next travels through the aqueous humor, a compartment filled with a watery fluid.
Then, it moves through the pupil (the hole in the iris — the colored part) and strikes the lens, which refines the focus before sending the light on to the vitreous chamber, which contains a gel-like fluid that supports the eye’s structure.
At the back of the eye lies the retina, the light-sensing tissue. It captures the incoming light and converts it into electrical signals that it sends to the brain by way of the optic nerve. The central 2% of the retina, which records the clear, central part of your visual field, is called the macula.
The brain decodes the optic nerve’s signals and translates it into an image we can “see.”
Once your eyes are dilated, the doctor uses a slit lamp to view all of the internal structures, from the front to the back. This way, they can pick up any signs of disease, injury, or malformation. They also perform an eye pressure test to screen for glaucoma, as a high intraocular pressure can damage tissue and cause vision loss.
Some of the common diseases they look for include:
All of these problems can lead to vision loss, so the sooner the doctor can detect and treat them, the more positive the outcome is likely to be.
How often you need an exam depends on your specific eyes and your overall health. Here are some basic guidelines:
If you’re under 40 and have no eye problems or a family history of eye problems, the doctor may recommend an exam every two years.
If you’re 40 or older, you should get your eyes checked every 1-2 years.
If you’ve had previous eye trouble, or if you’re at risk because of a family history, you should come in every year.
If you have a health condition like high blood pressure or diabetes, you may need more frequent exams. The doctor will let you know what the best schedule is for you.
If it’s been more than a year since your last comprehensive eye exam, it’s time to come into Retina Specialists for an evaluation. Call us at any of our five Texas offices — Dallas, DeSoto, Plano, Mesquite, and Waxahachie — to schedule.
