Screening or routine eye health examinations serve to uncover previously undetected vision disorders that can potentially threaten one’s vision. Adults over age 65 and children under age 20 should have routine eye health examinations regularly. All other patients with normal vision may be examined every other year. As part of a routine eye health exam, our doctors examine your vision and determine the need for glasses (refraction) as well as the general health of your eyes. If a medical eye condition is known, or discovered during this routine eye health exam, a separate appointment for a medical exam must then be made to address these issues.
All our board-certified ophthalmologists and optometrists perform routine eye exams for glasses, as well as exams for diabetes, macular degeneration, cataracts, blurred vision, headache disorders, eye pain and double vision. They all treat eye infections, allergies, burning and/or dry eyes and a variety of other disorders. A complete exam involves much more than simply checking vision and prescribing glasses. This visit will take about 60-90 minutes in part because of the time required to dilate your pupils.
Eye Exams for Adults & Seniors
If you are in overall good health, and to the best of your knowledge you have not been diagnosed with any eye health problems or eye diseases, scheduling an eye examination every two years is usually sufficient. It is important that, if you have any family member who has been told that they have glaucoma, macular degeneration (AMD) or you are diabetic you will need to be examined at least each year or as directed by your eye doctor or family doctor. A number of eye problems and eye conditions become more frequent with age. In particular, cataract formation and other age related macula problems increase in frequency for patients over 55-60 years of age and even healthy people should consider scheduling a routine eye exam each year if they fall into this age group. Anyone over 40 should have an eye exam and glaucoma testing each year and anyone over 50 with a family history of macular degeneration should also be examined annually.
Eye Exams for Children
At about 6 weeks of age, a baby should be able to fixate on an object, such as a face and maintain eye contact. Over a child’s first few years, vision develops rapidly with 20/20 vision often recorded by 2 or 3 years of age with some techniques. Parents should be aware of signs of poor vision in children. If one eye “turns” or “crosses,” that eye may not see as well as the other eye and may be an indication of a vision or developmental problem. If a child is not interested in faces or age-appropriate toys, or if their eyes rove around or jiggle-called nystagmus-you should suspect poor vision. Other signs to watch for are tilting the head and squinting. Babies and toddlers compensate for poor vision rather than complain about it. Should a baby need eyeglasses, the prescription can be determined fairly accurately by dilating the pupil and analyzing the light reflected through the pupil from the back of the eye. Children should have a pediatric eye exam before they enter school in order to diagnose problems with eye health muscle coordination, focusing and any other vision problems that might impact learning. Depending on your child’s individual history and your family history, an appropriate frequency for children’s eye exams can be determined. Please feel free to ask about how often we might recommend a children’s eye exam for your child.
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Bethlehem Eye Associates, an Affiliate of PRISM Vision Group