Question 1

What should I expect from a comprehensive eye exam?

Accepted Answer

If you've had a vision screening lately, you might say, "My vision is fine! I don't need a comprehensive eye exam."

A standard vision screening provides a limited perspective on the overall health of your eyes. It's like getting your blood pressure checked and not getting the rest of your annual physical. You'll have useful information, but it's not the whole picture.

A comprehensive eye exam allows our doctors to dig deeper and focus on your eye health above all, by performing a thorough, 15-point exam. Most importantly, we make sure you're informed of all the results in an easy-to-understand way so you can make informed decisions about your own health and vision.

Question 2

What is a contact lens exam?

Accepted Answer

A contact lens exam is added to the comprehensive exam for those patients who need a contact lens prescription. Corneal measurements, glasses prescriptions, and history are used to determine which brand and type of contact lens will be the healthiest and work the best for your eyes.

Trials are given if there is a brand and/or prescription change so that you can sample the new contact lenses in your day-to-day life. from there, tweaks can be made if necessary, and follow ups are included in the contact lens exam.

If you're a patient who wear a specialty lens such as sclerals, RGPs, ortho-k, MiSight, etc., more measurements are taken and typically these lenses require multiple follow ups to complete.

Question 3

Optomap

Accepted Answer

Optomap is the only machine that can capture up to 220° of the retina in one image, essentially replacing dilation. Undilated, the doctor can only view around 20-45° of the retina. It's important to view the peripheral retina to assess for cancer, retinal detachment, bleeding, and more.
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Optomap captures each image in less than half a second, non-invasively and without the need of drops, and the results are available to view immediately. One of the best advantages is being able to compare images year after year to detect even the smallest changes.​

Question 4

iCare Tonometry

Accepted Answer

iCare introduced the world's first rebound tonometer, replacing the dreadful puff of air. The iCare Tonometer is portable, hygienic, quick, and reliable. There's no need for anesthetic drops, and no pain or discomfort. Recent studies have even shown it to be as reliable as the gold standard for measuring eye pressure.

Question 5

Corneal Topography

Accepted Answer

Corneal Topography takes an elevation map of your cornea (front part of your eye). It's useful to detect certain corneal diseases such as keratoconus and pellucid marginal degeneration, but also useful for contact lenses (especially specialty contact lenses). Topography is done as a screener on every patient to catch these diseases before they become a problem.
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Topography works by taking pictures of the front part of your eye with special red lights. All the patient has to do is look at the target, no camera flash or pain. The entire process takes less than 10 seconds for each eye, and the results are available to view immediately.

Question 6

Visual Field

Accepted Answer

A visual field can actually help diagnose certain neurological conditions such as brain tumors, glaucoma, traumatic brain injuries, and others. For most of these conditions, it's especially important to monitor changes over time to assess progression. The visual field maps out your side vision in a very systematic and reliably way, and shows where you're missing any side vision. Because the nerves that control your side vision run through most of your brain, if there's a specific visual field defect, it can point to a specific brain lesion.

Performing the visual field test as the patient is like a video game - you're given a clicker and asked to look inside the machine and stare at the target. When you see a flash in the periphery, you click, it's that simple! The whole test takes around 5 minutes, and the results are available to view immediately.

Question 7

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)

Accepted Answer

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is kind of like an ultrasound of the eye - it takes a deeper look into the layers of a specific part of the retina, macula, or optic nerve. From there, the doctor examines the anatomy for any structural damage that might hint at functional damage (think: a crack in a mug (structural) means it might leak (functional)).
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Taking an OCT like most other equipment is similar to taking a picture. The patient stares at a target, and an image is captured less than 5 seconds later, and the results are available to view immediately.

Question 8

Optikam

Accepted Answer

Optikam is a unique device that takes extremely accurate measurements for glasses and also measures position of wear to customize the prescription for how the frame fits specifically on you. When you've found the perfect frames with our optician, he/she will attach the Optikam to the glasses and take a scan, which only takes a couple of minutes.

The scan then takes extra measurements that go way beyond just the standard PD (pupillary distance) that most offices take. These extra measurements sharpen vision and for some people, are crucial.

COMPREHENSIVE EYE EXAM