EYE EXAMS - New Jersey
Corneal Associates of New Jersey
LASIK, Cataract Surgery, Cornea Specialists
Your Eye Exam at Corneal Associates:
A complete eye exam involves a series of tests designed to evaluate your vision and check for eye diseases. All of it is painless. Your doctor may use odd-looking instruments, aim bright lights directly at your eyes and request that you look through a seemingly endless array of lenses. Each test evaluates a different aspect of your vision.
We want you to feel completely comfortable with your eye exam. If some part of the process is confusing to you, please ask for further explanation. Should you have further questions later, don't hesitate to call us. There are no foolish questions, only ones you want answered, and we encourage you to ask. Plus, there are usually printed materials about your condition that you can take home.
Common Tests During an Eye Exam:
Eye exams involve more than testing your vision and, if you need glasses or contacts, determining how strong your correction should be. Additional tests assess the appearance and function of all parts of your eyes.
Eye muscle test
This test examines the muscles that control eye movement, looking for weakness or poor control. Your eye doctor looks at your eyes as you move them in six specific directions and as you visually track a moving object, such as a pen.Visual acuity test
This test measures how clearly you can see from a distance. Your doctor will ask you to identify different letters of the alphabet printed on a chart positioned usually 20 feet away. The lines of type get smaller as you move down the chart. You cover one eye and read aloud, then cover the other eye and read aloud.Refraction assessment
"Refraction" refers to how light waves are bent as they pass through your cornea and lens. A refraction assessment helps your doctor determine a corrective lens prescription that will give you the sharpest vision. If you don't need corrective lenses, you won't have a refraction assessment.Your doctor may use a computerized refractor to measure your eyes and estimate the prescription you need to correct a refractive error. Or he or she may use a technique called retinoscopy. In this procedure the doctor shines a light into your eye and measures the refractive error by evaluating the movement of the light reflected by your retina.
Your eye doctor fine-tunes this refraction assessment by asking you to look through a Phoroptor, a mask-like device that contains wheels of different lenses, and judge which combination gives you the sharpest vision. By repeating this step several times, your doctor finds the lenses that give you the greatest possible acuity.
Visual field test (perimetry)
Your visual field is the area directly in front of you that you can see without moving your eyes. The visual field test determines whether you have difficulty seeing in any areas of your peripheral vision — the areas on the side of your visual field. There are a few different types of visual field tests:
- Confrontation visual field exam. Your eye doctor sits directly in front of you and asks you to cover one eye. You look directly at your eye doctor while he or she moves his or her hand in and out of your visual field. You tell your doctor when you can see his or her hand.
- Tangent screen exam. You sit a short distance from a screen and stare at a target at its center. You tell your doctor when you can see an object move into your peripheral vision.
- Automated perimetry. Your eye doctor uses a computer program that flashes small lights as you look into a special instrument. You press a button when you see the lights.
By gathering information based on your responses to one or more of these tests, your eye doctor makes a map of your peripheral vision. If you aren't able to see in certain areas, your eye doctor uses the map to help diagnose your eye condition.
Slit-lamp examination
A slit lamp is a microscope that enlarges and illuminates the front of your eye with an intense line of light. Your doctor uses this light to examine the cornea, iris, lens and anterior chamber of your eye.When examining your cornea, your doctor may use eye drops containing fluorescein (flooh-RES-ene) dye. The orange dye spreads across your eyes to help your eye doctor detect tiny cuts, scrapes, tears, foreign objects or infections on your cornea. Your eyes' tears will wash the dye away.
Retinal examination (ophthalmoscopy)
A retinal examination — sometimes called ophthalmoscopy or fundoscopy — examines the back of your eye, including your retina, optic disk and the underlying layer of blood vessels that nourish the retina (choroid). Usually before your doctor can see these structures, your pupils must be dilated with special eye drops The eye drops may sting briefly and might cause a medicinal taste in your mouth as the medication drains from your tear ducts into your throat.After administering eye drops, your eye doctor may use one or more of these techniques to view the back of your eye:
- Direct examination. Your eye doctor shines a beam of light through your pupil and uses an ophthalmoscope to see the back of your eye. Sometimes eye drops aren't necessary to dilate your eyes before this exam. You might see afterimages when your eye doctor stops shining the light in your eyes. This is normal and will go away.
- Indirect examination. For this exam you might lie down or recline in a chair. Your eye doctor will hold each eye open and examine it with a bright light mounted on his or her forehead — a bit like a miner's lamp. This exam lets your eye doctor see your eye in great detail and in three dimensions. Since this light is brighter than that in a direct examination, you are more likely to see afterimages, but they disappear quickly.
- Slit-lamp exam. In this exam your doctor uses the slit lamp along with the ophthalmoscope to look at the back of your eye. The slit lamp reveals more detailed views of the back of your eye than do direct or indirect examinations.
The retinal examination takes five to 10 minutes, but if you're given eye drops, their effects won't wear off for several hours. Your vision will be blurry, and you'll have trouble focusing your eyes. You may not be able to drive, so make sure you have another way back to work or home. Depending on your job, you might not be able to work until the eye drops wear off.
Glaucoma test (tonometry) Tonometry measures your intraocular pressure — the pressure inside your eyes. It helps your eye doctor detect glaucoma, a disease that causes pressure to build up inside your eyes and can cause blindness. Glaucoma can be treated if it's caught early.
Methods your eye doctor may use to test your eyes for glaucoma include:
- Applanation tonometry. This test measures the amount of force needed to temporarily flatten a part of your cornea. Fluorescein, the same orange dye used in a regular slit-lamp exam, is usually put in your eye to make your cornea easier to see. You'll also receive eye drops containing an anesthetic. Using the slit lamp, your doctor moves the tonometer to touch your cornea. It won't hurt, and the anesthetic will wear off within two hours.
- Noncontact tonometry. This method uses a puff of air to test the pressure in your eye. No instruments will touch your eye, so you won't need an anesthetic. You'll feel mild pressure on your eye, which can be uncomfortable, but it lasts only seconds.
- Pachymetry. This test measures the thickness of your cornea — an important factor in evaluating your intraocular pressure measurement. After applying numbing eye drops, your eye doctor uses an instrument that emits ultrasound waves to measure your corneal thickness.
Besides these basic evaluations, you may need more specialized tests, depending on your age, medical history and risk of developing eye disease.
Myopia (Nearsightedness)
Nearsighted individuals typically have problems seeing
well at a distance and are forced to wear glasses or
contact lenses. The nearsighted eye is usually longer
than a normal eye, and its cornea may also be steeper.
Therefore, when light passes through the cornea and lens,
it is focused in front of the retina. This will make
distant images appear blurred. LASIK, PRK, and
Phakic IOLs are just a few of the options available to
correct nearsightedness.
Hyperopia (Farsightedness)
Farsighted individuals typically develop problems reading up close before the age of 40. The farsighted eye is usually slightly shorter than a normal eye and may have a flatter cornea. Thus, the light of distant objects focuses behind the retina unless the natural lens can compensate fully. Near objects require even greater focusing power to be seen clearly and therefore, blur more easily. LASIK, Refractive Lens Exchange and Contact lenses are a few of the options available to correct farsightedness.
Astigmatism
Asymmetric steepening of the cornea or natural lens causes light to be focused unevenly, which is the main optical problem in astigmatism. To individuals with uncorrected astigmatism, images may look blurry or shadowed. Astigmatism can accompany any form of refractive error and is very common. Astigmatism can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, corneal relaxing incisions, laser vision correction, and special implant lenses.
Presbyopia
Presbyopia is a condition that typically becomes noticeable for most people around age 45. In children and young adults, the lens inside the eye can easily focus on distant and near objects. With age, the lens loses its ability to focus adequately. Although presbyopia is not completely understood, it is thought that the lens and its supporting structures lose the ability to make the lens longer during close vision effort. To compensate, affected individuals usually find that holding reading material further away makes the image clearer. Ultimately, aids such as reading glasses are typically needed by the mid-forties. Besides glasses, presbyopia can be dealt with in a number of ways. Options include: monovision and multifocal contact lenses, monovision laser vision correction, and new presbyopia correcting implant lenses.
Damaged Corneas - Corneal Transplantation
The cornea is the transparent outer surface that covers the pupil and iris of each eye. A healthy cornea is clear so you can see through it, and flexible. While delicate, corneas have a remarkable ability to heal (making LASIK surgery possible). But when corneas are damaged beyond their ability to heal, they impair, rather than aid, vision. Only a trained corneal specialist can tell you whether a cornea should be treated in hopes that it will heal, or whether the cornea needs to be replaced through corneal transplantation. Corneal Associates of New Jersey have helped thousands regain their sight with corneal transplants.
Keratoconus
Keratoconus is a degenerative condition in which the cornea protrudes and astigmatisms occur. A patient suffering from keratoconus may have to consider having a corneal transplant at some point.
Reduce or eliminate your need for glasses and contacts - take your vision beyond glasses, beyond contacts, possibly beyond 20/20! Corneal Associates of New Jersey is here for you, offering complete and unbiased information and advice to help you choose the ideal treatment for your situation, resulting in your BEST POSSIBLE VISION. Call now for you appointment:
(973) 736-1313
