With over 50 years of collective experience, you can be sure your eye care is in the safest hands.
If you have never had an eye test, this guide will help you understand the tests performed during your visit and why we do them. Rest assured, an eye examination is quite straightforward and takes around 20 – 30 minutes.
The tonometer measures the pressure inside your eyes, known as intraocular pressure. A soft puff of air is directed into the eye, measuring intraocular pressure. It only takes a couple of seconds to perform and can show indications of some underlying ocular problems that can easily be treated and corrected if caught early.
The visual field screener may be used to during your appointment to determine your field of vision. During the test, you will be asked to look at a spot in the centre of the machine and respond to lights flashing around this central target.
This test helps to find your natural blind spots and locate any anomalies in your field of vision if they are present.
The optician will ask you questions regarding your current general health and if you have noticed any eye or vision problems.
This gives us an idea of key things to look for in the assessment being carried out. We also ask lifestyle questions to see if what you do in your day may be effecting your vision. An example of this would be somebody on the computer all day and suffering from tired eyes.
These handheld instruments are fantastic tools for an optician to be able to again refine if any correction is needed to improve vision. The optician will observe how your eye processes the beam of light created by the retinoscope.
The ophthalmoscope looks a little deeper and in more depth into the back of the eye and is used to look for abnormalities in the retina. It looks at the condition of the blood vessels and the head of the optic nerve, indicating underlying diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure or macular degeneration.
The most common test chart used today is the Snellen chart, which is a series of letters reducing in size from the largest at the top to the smallest at the bottom.
You will be asked to read through the lines of the chart, with the lines getting progressively smaller. The smaller the print you are able to see without glasses, the less likely that you will need corrective lenses.
This test helps the optician check that any prescription found for you is correct. The chart is made up of a green and red background with a number of black circles. The optician will change the lenses in front of your eyes making one set of circles clearer than another. You will find that during this test the circles appear very similar between the colours.
The slit lamp is an illuminated microscope which examines the front surface of the eye, eyelids, lashes and surrounding areas. It is used to look at the condition of the conjunctiva, sclera, cornea, iris and the crystalline lens. This looks for abnormalities in those areas, cell damage, or scratches on the eye.
This examination is beneficial when performing contact lens checks as the lens sits directly on the eye's surface, thus showing us how well the lens is sitting, fitting and performing.
The optician will ask you to focus on objects at different distances away from you, from very far to very close. They may place different lenses in front of your eyes to see if it helps you focus up close.
Once all your tests have been completed, the optician will discuss their findings with you and ask if you have any questions regarding what they have found.
If a change in prescription or a new prescription is found, the optician will discuss your options for corrective spectacles or contact lenses. The optician will then relay this information to the dispensing optician / optical consultant, who will then explain more about the different types of lenses, coatings, and tints that would help you.
Don’t let poor vision hinder your child’s education. A lazy eye can cause permanent damage if not treated before age seven, early screening is free and can detect and prevent visual problems.
School screening is no longer universally available, so we provide a FREE examination for both the sight and health of your child’s eyes. If spectacles are required, we provide FREE Frames & Lenses for Children & Students or £45.00 towards any frame & lenses in the practice.
We have built a reputation for personal attention during many years of experience working with the NHS to provide children and adults with high-quality eye care and eyewear.
The NHS recommends that every child under the age of 16 should have a sight test every year to ensure the healthy development of their eyes and early detection of any visual problems.
Full eyesight screening is not automatically provided at schools, placing the responsibility on parents and teachers to recognise a child with visual difficulty, which can be hard to spot as a problem. For example, even to the child, a lazy eye might not be apparent.
This can result in many visual problems being diagnosed late and children being left with permanent visual problems, which could have been prevented by early detection.
Poor vision can seriously hinder your child’s education, which can be avoided by a free regular sight test and thorough eye examination, which we provide free on the NHS. If corrective spectacles are required, the NHS will provide every child under 16 and full-time students to age 19 with a voucher for free frames.
