General Eye Exams
Your eyesight is a precious gift, and we want to help you preserve it for a lifetime. At Great Plains Eye Specialists, we provide comprehensive eye care services to monitor your eyesight and give you the opportunity to be proactive about changes in your vision – even if you don’t realize there is a problem. Early detection of vision problems is often vital to helping preserve your eyesight.
Common Eye Exam Tests
- Current refractive error measurement using retinoscopy
- Eye pressure measurement to identify glaucoma
- Eye health using a silt-lamp
- Visual acuity to measure the definition of your vision
- Blind spot detection using a visual field test
- Eye misalignment using cover tests
- Eye disease identification through pupil dilation
Eye Exam Schedule
For patients with healthy eyes, the following comprehensive eye exam schedule is recommended:
- First eye exam: age 6 months
- Second eye exam: age 3 years
- School age children: before starting school and then every 1-2 years (in addition to vision screenings at school)
- Adults: every 1-2 years
- Seniors: yearly
Why are Eye Exams Important?
Most people know that visiting a doctor regularly is important to identify health problems and take proactive measures to prevent illnesses. Sometimes eye health is overlooked – especially if there are no outward signs of vision problems. Regular eye exams are just as important as check-ups with your primary care physician. Some eye diseases do not have any symptoms in the early stages. The earlier these can be diagnosed and treated, the better chance you will have at protecting your vision. We look for any signs of problems such as:
- Refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism)
- Glaucoma
- Retinal damage (macular degeneration, retinal detachment, etc.)
- Diabetic eye disease (diabetic retinopathy)
- Corneal problems (keratoconus, dry eye, etc.)
- Visual acuity challenges
- Eye misalignment
- And much more
How Often Should You Have an Eye Exam?
There is no singular answer to this question. In general, if you are an adult and you are generally healthy, an eye exam every 1-2 years may be sufficient. However, if you fall into any of these categories, you may need to have an eye exam more frequently to monitor your condition:
- Diabetic
- Currently have an eye disease
- Family history of eye disease
- Undergone eye procedures in the past
Another Benefit: Protect Your Overall Health
Your eye doctor can also identify underlying health problems just by looking at your eye health. In some cases, conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and other medical conditions can be identified during regular eye exams.