There are a lot of people who take their vision for granted. If you live in Squamish, you need to do everything you can to protect your eyesight. You probably go to the medical doctor once per year for an annual physical. You probably go to the dentist twice per year for regular cleaning. You should make sure you go to the eye doctor in Squamish once per year for an annual ocular health exam. Why is this annual exam so important? What should you expect? Take a look at some of the helpful information below. Then, give us a call to work with one of our experienced Optometrists!
Squamish Adult Eye Exams
If you can see clearly, you may be wondering why you should go to the eye doctor. After all, if your vision is fine, why do you need to go to the optometrist? Some of the most important reasons to schedule your annual adult eye exam include:
- There are certain eye diseases that may not cause any symptoms in the early stages, yet could cause irreversible vision loss in the late stages. Seeing the eye doctor regularly gives us a chance to detect these issues before they harm your vision.
- If you have glasses or contacts, your prescription may have changed. This might present as eye strain, fatigue, or blurriness. An eye exam gives us an opportunity to test your eyes, making sure that you have the right corrective lenses.
- New advances are made in the field of optometry. If you come to see us, we can update you on the latest technologies, allowing you to improve and protect your vision.
Comprehensive Eye Exam
During a comprehensive eye exam, you may be wondering what type of problems we can detect. Some of the issues that we uncover regularly are:
- Refractive error: myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism, that you might not have noticed
- Glaucoma: A progressive disease of the optic nerve head that is often associated with painless increase in eye pressure, resulting in asymptomatic peripheral vision loss which can then lead to more functional central blindness.
- Diabetes or Hypertension: During an eye exam, we can view the blood vessels in the back of the eye, which can give us an idea of what is happening to the vascular system in the rest of the body.
- And more!
Obviously we hope that your vision is perfectly fine! As part of our comprehensive eye exam, we want to make sure there is nothing wrong with your eye health.
What Happens During an Eye Exam
When you come to see us for your eye exam, our goal is to be as thorough as possible. We make sure not to miss anything when we check your eyes and vision. Some of the tests we will carry out as a part of our annual eye exam include:
- Visual acuity: This is where we ask you to read a chart at the other end of the room with each eye individually. This is done to help us detect any refractive errors that might be present.
- Binocular Vision: a few quick tests let us know how well your two eyes are working together.
- Slit lamp exam: This allows us to view all the structures at the front of the eye.
- Eye pressure: This is a screener for glaucoma, and also gives us information about how the structures in the eye are working.
- Dilation: This opens the pupil up, allowing us to clearly see the structures at the back of the eye, including the retina, optic nerve, macula, and blood vessels. Without dilation, we stand a chance of missing over 30% of the retina.
- Retinal imaging: we image the back of the eye to have a baseline, that way, we can detect if there are any changes at your next year’s exam!
We will make you as comfortable as possible during this exam. When we are finished, we will go over all of the findings, and answer any questions you may have!
Experienced Eye Doctor in Squamish
If you are looking for an experienced eye doctor in Squamish, we are here to help you. We will use all of our expertise to make sure we take care of your vision. Give us a call today to schedule an appointment with a friendly eye doctor from our eye clinic!