How frequently should I visit my optician for an eye test?

Our eyes are one of the essential parts of our body. It serves as our guide for every action that we do in our daily lives. Taking care of our eyes should be the utmost priority as losing our eyesight gradually will make life more difficult than before. 

This is why a visit to our optometrist is essential. Eye exams ensure that our eyes are still in perfect vision and that there are no underlying problems inside them. So, how often should you visit your optometrist? 

What is an Eye Exam?

An eye exam is an exam that involves a series of tests and vision practices to check for any eye problems or diseases. An eye exam is most likely to be done by your doctor opticians Corringham through a particular instrument, shining bright lights directly on your eye, or even making you read far away sentences. These exams and methods measure a specific area of your eye to ensure every part is covered. 

So, When Do You Need To Have an Eye Exam?

An eye exam should be done periodically within a year, but how often should you visit depends on your condition, age, and present problems with your eye. Here are some factors that define how often should you have your vision checked: 

If you’re a child below three years of age

This stage of the child is the growing stage, so your paediatrician will most likely check your child’s eye for abnormalities like eye alignment, vision score, and other common problems in a child’s eye. 

If your child is an adolescent

Before your child goes into school, you should have their eyes checked by their paediatrician, and afterwards, they can recommend and schedule your future visits if ever there are problems. 

If you’re an adult already.

Typically, if you have healthy eyes until the age of 40, then that’s the point where you will get your eyes checked due to vision changes, and some eye problems might start occurring at that age. Your doctor in opticians Formby will give you a note of how frequent your visits should be for eye exams in the future. 

What To Expect in an Eye Exam?

As said before, an eye exam consists of different tests to measure each aspect of your vision and eye health. Here are the exams that will most likely appear: 

Eye Muscle Test

A doctor does this test by making you follow a specific object with your eyes. Depending on how fast your eye follows the thing will define the problems in your regards like eye coordination, weakness, or control

Visual Acuity Test

This is what you usually see in a doctor’s office. This test is done by your doctor, making you read letters of the alphabet on a chart a few feet away from your position. The letters and numbers get smaller as you go down. 

This tests how well your vision is individually on each eye, if it’s a perfect 20/20 or if you’re having vision problems. 

Refraction Assessment

The refraction assessment is done to test how your eyes work in certain light conditions. Performing this test will help your doctor identify the best and most comfortable eyewear that you can use to protect your eyes from the light. This is usually done when prescribing glasses or contact lenses. 

Conclusion

Having your eyes checked is crucial to make things easier when doing specific actions like driving and reading your teacher’s notes. Prolonging your eye problems may result in terrible and worsening vision, and the worst-case scenario, blindness and permanent vision loss. 

Be sure to check in with your paediatrician or doctor once or twice a year to keep your eyes healthy.