Your Eye Exam

What to expect.

Preparing for Your Visit

Preparing for your visit can make the whole check-in process and appointment go more smoothly. We will need to make copies of a photo ID, like a driver’s license, and your up-to-date health insurance cards, so please bring all of them with you to your appointment. If you have additional vision insurance, we’ll need information for that, too. We are required to have all of this to be able to bill your insurance.

What to Expect from Your Exam

A complete eye exam, particularly one for a new patient, typically lasts between 60-90 minutes, though they can run longer if you need additional testing. Our team will take some quick measurements of your eyes, then perform basic vision tests and check glasses prescriptions. We’ll also check your eye’s pressure and ask basic questions about your eye health, symptoms you may be having, your health history, and so on.

Purchasing Plan

Eye health and vision are important for just about everything in modern life, so investing in your eyes is vital. We have trained Opticians that will help you MAXIMIZE your vision benefits by assuring your frame selection fits properly, review the best lens options for you, and take all of the proper measurements needed. When purchasing your contact lenses, our friendly staff will MAXIMIZE your vision benefits as well as utilize REBATES only available at our private practice.

We Look Forward to Seeing You!

We’re glad you and your family are taking steps to take care of your vision health—and we’re glad you chose Visionhealth. We love serving our community and consider every person who comes through our doors part of our own “family.” Thanks again for choosing Visionhealth Eye Center. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Check In and Pretesting

When you come into our office, your first stop will be at our front desk. A front-desk team member will greet you and begin to update your records. We are here to assist you, so feel free to ask us any questions you may have. Many patients complete their patient history information forms online. Upon arrival just relax and enjoy a warm cup of coffee while we update your records.

Before your exam we will run a series of tests to check the general health of your eyes. Using specialized instruments to gather important data, we will measure the power of your eye to focus at distance, the pressures inside your eye (glaucoma screening),curvature of your eye, prescription in your old glasses (if applicable), and your field of vision (peripheral vision).

Finally, we will run a preliminary check on how clearly you are seeing using the familiar eye chart. Once this is done, the Doctor will review all the data and continue the exam.

Eye Health Testing

One very important part of your annual eye exam is to ensure that your eyes are healthy and free of disease. Besides the information gathered earlier, the doctor uses several instruments to help him determine the state of your eyes’ health. The slit-lamp is a high-powered microscope designed to give him a very close look at your cornea, iris, lens and eyelids. An ophthalmascope allows the doctor to shine a bright light into your eyes to look at your optic nerve and the surrounding tissues.

Routine dilated examinations are an important and painless part of your annual visit. The pupil of the eye is like a window. Dilating the pupils allows the doctor to see the entire back of the eye to make sure it is healthy. Most eye diseases do not have painful or noticeable symptoms until it is too late. Early detection of serious eye diseases can prevent sight loss. Your eyes are completely evaluated inside and out for not only eye disease, but other health problems that affect the eyes. The following is an example of visual and health problems that can be detected with a routine dilation:

Glaucoma	Hyperthyroidism
Macular Degeneration	Hypertension
Retinal Disease	Diabetes
Retinal Detachments	Multiple Sclerosis

Visual Acuity Testing

The doctor will test your near and distance vision to determine the correct amount of lens power you may need for best clarity of sight and comfort. This is done using an instrument called a phoropter, a large lens and prism bank used to subjectively measure the power of your eyes to see clearly (refraction). At the conclusion of this procedure the doctor will know the prescription power you need for glasses, as well as the contact lens prescription if you wear contacts.

All the information that has been gathered during the exam helps the doctor make some important decisions about your vision. Obviously, if you are nearsighted or farsighted or have an astigmatism, he will prescribe glasses or contacts to help you see clearly. Sometimes lenses may be prescribed to prevent further problems down the road. For instance, he may prescribe a stress relieving lenses to a child for nearwork when they are young to help prevent nearsightedness when they get older. Other times he may prescribe an occupational lens to a patient who experiences fatigue and eyestrain from working on the computer all day.

Eye Exams are Recommended Yearly

Many sight-threatening eye diseases are very treatable if they are caught early, so it is critical that these tests are run every year. Just like seeing the dentist, it is better to visit your eye doctor BEFORE something is seriously wrong, so that risk factors can be identified, small problems managed, and bigger problems avoided.

Many eye diseases are silent threats to your vision with no obvious symptoms until it is too late. The only way to detect them is regular eye exams. Our goal at Visionhealth is to not only provide our patients with the clearest sight possible but also to ensure that you have a healthy visual system that will last a lifetime.