Eye Examinations
Mt. View EyeCare proudly serves the people of Vancouver, WA and the surrounding area.
Committed to preserving optimal vision for its patients and the public, the staff at Mt. View is extensively trained, experienced and up to the task. From wellness exams to medication screenings to acute eye care, our sole mission is to preserve, protect, and improve your vision. In so doing, helping to enhance the quality of your life.
What Happens During an Eye Exam?
Our eye doctors and staff must evaluate the eyes thoroughly to fully understand the health of your vision.
Here’s an overview of some of the procedures you might experience during a routine eye exam:
Dilation
Binocular vision is an important part of a patient’s examination. Many times patients will come in with headaches/migraines, tired eyes, or children may be struggling in school. While these scenarios are not always linked to a patient’s eyes working together properly, many times we find there is something off that can be alleviated with glasses, contact lenses, or vision therapy.
Imaging and Testing
Our practice does offer retinal wellness images of the back of the eye to all patients who are in for their annual eye exams. We recommend these photos as it gives your doctor the ability to compare your eye health from one year to the next to find subtle changes. In the event there is risk of eye disease, your doctor can order additional testing right away if needed as nearly all our imaging is done in office.
Visual Acuity and Refraction
Most everyone knows the eye chart hanging on the wall with letters both large and small. This tool helps the doctor measure the precision or sharpness of a patient’s vision.
Binocular Vision
Binocular vision is an important part of a patient’s examination. Many times patients will come in with headaches/migraines, tired eyes, or children may be struggling in school. While these scenarios are not always linked to a patient’s eyes working together properly, many times we find there is something off that can be alleviated with glasses, contact lenses, or vision therapy.
Microscope Examination
Your doctor will use a specialize microscope designed for evaluating the health of the outer sections of your eyes before using a special lens to assist with viewing the back part of your eyes to evaluate for health conditions.
Is My First Eye Exam Visit Any Different?
The less your optometrist knows about your visual and general health, the more in-depth the examination. A documented patient history helps the doctor to be on guard for specific conditions or medications that impact vision and your overall health. The more information you bring, the better–glasses and/or contact prescriptions, records of past eye procedures, etc.
You should also anticipate having your eyes dilated. Your doctor will want to have total knowledge of what your eye looks like to make sure nothing is missed. You’d be surprised how often we find something that a patient never knew they had!
Annual Wellness Eye Exams
For patients who are interested in maintaining their general eye health and updating their glasses prescriptions. We recommend annual examinations for all patients, even if you feel like your vision hasn’t changed. At these appointments you’ll often be able to hear new updates in technology or more importantly make sure that your eyes continue to remain healthy.
Many conditions are found when we see changes in the eye. These are often easiest to detect earlier when patients are seen more frequently. Glaucoma is a great example of conditions that are slow progressing early on, but can cause vision loss if not monitored closely.
If you’re a new patient, our policy is typically to dilate all new patients the first time they are seen within our clinic, then on a case by case basis afterwards.
Routine and Special Reasons for Eye Exams
NEARSIGHTEDNESS, FARSIGHTEDNESS, AND ASTIGMASTISM
Poor vision can adversely affect performance at work and school, driving on the road and operating power machinery. Fortunately, in most instances this is easily remedied with corrective lenses. An eye examination can determine what the optimal magnification should be so the glasses or contact lenses restore vision to ideal competence. Since eyes can change over time, return visits are advisable.
AGE’S IMPACT ON EYES
Nothing on this earth lasts forever and people are no exception. As we age, the focusing lens inside the eye is slowly becoming less flexible. Because of this focusing up close also calls for more effort. These are normal changes that often come after the 40th birthday; no reason to be alarmed but get the eyes checked at any rate.
Other impacts aging has on the eye is an increase in risks for conditions like glaucoma, age related macular degeneration, cataracts, and more.
MACULAR DEGENERATION
Nevertheless, age-related issues can also bring on problems of concern. The older we get, the greater the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition responsible for the visual impairment of nearly 11 million people in the United States. AMD occurs when the center of the retina—the macula—begins to degrade, thereby affecting central vision, color distinction and discernment of fine detail. There are several treatments available ranging from nutritional changes and medication to laser therapy and injections. First, an exam is in order to determine the extent and kind of degeneration.
DIABETES
Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to a host of eye diseases, like retinopathy (retinal bleeding), macular swelling, progressive cataracts and some types of glaucoma. Any and all of these can bring on visual impairment or blindness. Diabetic macular edema (DME), to name one, involves swelling in the macula due to fluid from leaking blood vessels. While there are preliminary symptoms like blurred vision, there are sometimes very few symptoms in early cases. This is why annual diabetic eye exams are necessary to treat problems early before they cause blindness.
GLAUCOMA
Glaucoma is a condition where damage has occurred to the optic nerve in the back of the eye, usually due to the pressure in the eye being too high. The biggest problem with glaucoma is that most of the time, patient’s do not know they have glaucoma or that there is damage to their nerve because there are no obvious symptoms. Glaucoma is typically a painless and symptom-less condition until it becomes severe.
Patients will often ask what their eye pressure is and cheer when they hear what they think to be a “good” number. Unfortunately, eye pressure is just one piece of the puzzle that is glaucoma. Some people will have completely normal eye pressures and still have glaucoma!
CATARACT
Each eye has a lens that acts much like a camera lens, i.e. it focuses light and images onto the retina. As people age, protein can bunch up at a point on the lens and obstruct visual images. That aggregation is a cataract. The cataract grows larger if not addressed. Furthermore, diabetes and smoking hasten the growth of cataracts.
WELLNESS
An eye exam is, first and foremost, a medical exam. The eyes are the windows to your body and can help your doctor to find something that might be wrong before other doctors might detect something. Mt. View EyeCare’s experienced doctors have had numerous cases where they either diagnosed or found the critical finding that lead to a diagnosis in cases of strokes, diabetes, brain tumors, heart disease, or autoimmune diseases (to name a few!).
Sometimes these are found during regular wellness examinations without any obvious patient concerns, but can be the key to unlocking what other issues a patient has been experiencing.
Ready to Schedule Your Eye Exam?
Protect your vision with regular eye exams. Our experienced eye care professionals offer personalized care to meet your unique needs.