Taking proper care of your eyes is an important part of staying healthy no matter how old you are. It is important for both adults and children to have a comprehensive eye exam at least once every year. Many people think that they take care of this by simply walking into their local eyeglasses shop and having their eyeglasses or contact lens prescription updated yearly. This is a common misconception that can have some dangerous consequences! There is a big difference between a Comprehensive Eye Exam, that can only be performed by a certified Optometrist, and a Vision Screening, which is much less thorough and does not give as deep an insight into your eye health. Below are outlined some of the main differences:
You Get What You Pay For
First of all, if your spending $30-40 on an exam - your likely getting only a partial picture of your overall eye health. These kinds of exams are effective in determining whether you need new glasses or contacts, but will not be able to detect underlying issues that may signal eye disease or other problems that can cause serious and permanent vision damage beyond the ability of eyeglasses or contacts to fix. Comprehensive Eye Exams, by contrast, go much deeper and will tell you much more.
What Do Our Comprehensive Eye Exams Include?
By contrast, a Comprehensive Eye Exam at EyeStyles, serving Belmont, Bridgeport, and Woodstock involves checking for the underlying health of your eye, along with checking your eyeglasses and contact lens prescription. During our Comprehensive Eye Exams, we run many non-invasive tests and scans, including tests to see if there are any signs of eye disease such as glaucoma or macular degeneration. These conditions cause little or no symptoms until a great damage has already occurred, at which point very little can be done to restore vision lost. With diseases such as these, early detection is key, or else the risk of losing a significant amount of sight increases dramatically.
Besides your eye health, your overall bodily health can be detected through your eyes as well. A Comprehensive Eye Exam also includes examinations of the retina, cornea, blood vessels and nerves for any signs that might signify the onset of tumors, cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes, among other conditions that can be first detected in the eyes.
While it isn't necessarily a bad thing to get your prescription updated from time to time while you're passing by, it is important to know that it doesn't count as your yearly exam. Come see us at least once a year for the full picture!