Comprehensive Eye Exams
Learn more about what problems can be spotted with an eye exam, what’s involved in a comprehensive exam, and special considerations for kids and contacts.
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During the Eye Exam
Regardless of your age or physical health, it's important to have regular eye exams.
During a complete eye exam, your eye doctor will not only determine your prescription for eyeglasses or contact lenses, but will also check your eyes for common eye diseases, assess how your eyes work together as a team and evaluate your eyes as an indicator of your overall health.
A comprehensive eye exam includes a number of tests and procedures to examine and evaluate the health of your eyes and the quality of your vision. These tests range from simple ones, like having you read an eye chart, to complex tests, such as using a high-powered lens to examine the health of the tissues inside of your eyes.
Eyecare experts recommend you have a complete eye exam every one to three years, depending on your age, risk factors, and physical condition.
Dr. Keats often puts the patient's new glasses prescription into a trial frame. Then we walk out of the exam room with these new lenses on and allow the patient to see the world at several hundred yards, signs at 40 feet, and signs at 6-10 feet away, all in a real-world space where the peripheral view is integrated into the vision.
In this environment, integrating one's peripheral vision, the actual prescription a patient needs sometimes changes just slightly from what we found in the exam room.
By holding loose lenses over the trial frame, we can make these needed changes. This modification gives our patients the best visual outcome possible. Dr. Keats lets the patient compare these new powers to the old vision they have been seeing through.
Consequently, those of our patients who decide to purchase new glasses are assured they will be much more satisfied with their new powers. If you choose to use Northwood Vision please ask Dr. Keats for the Trial Frame Experience!
Children
Some experts estimate that approximately 5% to 10% of pre-schoolers and 25% of school-aged children have vision problems. According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), all children should have their eyes examined at 6 months of age, at age 3 and again at the start of school.
Children without vision problems or risk factors for eye or vision problems should then continue to have their eyes examined at least every two years throughout school.
Children with existing vision problems or risk factors should have their eyes examined more frequently.
Common risk factors for vision problems include:
The AOA recommends that children who wear eyeglasses or contact lenses should have their eyes examined at least every 12 months or according to their eye doctor's instructions. Read more about Pediatric Eye Exams.
Adults
The AOA also recommends an annual eye exam for any adult who wears eyeglasses or contacts. If you don't normally need vision correction, you still need an eye exam every two to three years up to the age of 40, depending on your rate of visual change and overall health.
Doctors often recommend more frequent examinations for adults with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other disorders, because many diseases can have an impact on vision and eye health.
If you are over 40, it's a good idea to have your eyes examined every one to two years to check for common age-related eye problems such as presbyopia, cataracts, and macular degeneration. Read more about Vision After 40.
Because the risk of eye disease continues to increase with advancing age, everyone over the age of 60 should be examined annually. Read more about Vision After 60.