In this blog, we will discuss what you can expect during a comprehensive eye exam with your eye doctor. Each eye exam is different from the other and may address a specific eye condition such as low vision, dry eye, post trauma etc.

What Should You Expect During an Eye Exam?

If you are a new patient, you will need to fill out some paperwork, nothing too complicated. Our technician will then take you to a room for pre-testing once you're done with that. They will run you through some machines and gather some data for our eye doctor to look at during your eye exam. After that, our eye doctor will call you into the exam room. They will ask you questions such as what brought you here? What symptoms are you experiencing? Do you notice any changes in your vision? Do you wear any prescription glasses or contacts? Do you have any family history of any eye disease or any other disease? And other questions that would help our eye doctor with an accurate diagnosis and then treatment.

Once that's done, we start checking your vision, which if you wear glasses is done with your glasses on or if you don’t wear glasses, we check your vision without glasses. Our next step is to check additional things like your eye alignment, eye movement, and peripheral vision. Next, our eye doctor will check your visual acuity. If you need a prescription or your prescription has changed, we will do testing for near and distance vision. After that, we will check your eye health.

Will my Eyes be Dilated During an Eye Exam?

Depending on your age, eye diseases, eye health and pupil size, we may or may not dilate your pupil. We dilate your pupil by putting a drop in it, which causes the pupil to widen, allowing our eye doctor to see the back of your eye to check for retinal diseases.

Our eye doctor will have you sit in the exam chair in front of the slit lamp whether you are dilated or not. It is an instrument with a big microscope and a light attached. It allows them to look at both the front (cornea) and the back part of your eye (retina). It is at this point that we will determine if you have any conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure which could lead to eye conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, retinal detachment, dry eye, or any other eye condition.

After assessing you, our eye doctor will discuss the findings of the eye exam, such as how the condition is progressing, treatment options, and management. Please feel free to ask our eye doctor any questions during any part of the eye exam.