What to Expect During Your Eye Exam

Your eye health is crucial for perceiving the world around you and engaging with others. The first step toward maintaining healthy eyes and vision is an eye exam with your eye doctor near you. Lock Family Eye Care in West Des Moines, IA, uses these exams to check for eye and vision issues that can impact your eyesight. Learn more about what happens during an eye exam below.

Discussion With Our Optometrists

Our optometrists begin each eye exam with an in-depth discussion about your eye and vision health, changes you may have experienced, medication you take, and your family medical history. This information helps us understand your current eye health and if you are at risk of developing certain eye diseases. We may also check your eyeglasses or contact lenses prescription to ensure they are up-to-date.

Visual Acuity Test

The next part of your eye exam is a visual acuity test. You may know this better as the eye chart test. Visual acuity tests help ascertain the sharpness of your vision. The results of this test can hint at any changes to the quality of your eyesight that require more attention.

Visual Field Test

Our optometrists then perform a visual field test. This test gauges the quality of your peripheral vision. Newfound blind spots in your field of vision can indicate certain eye diseases that require prompt management, such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

Pupil Dilation

We often include pupil dilation tests in comprehensive eye exams to check for diseases like diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration. We dilate your pupils to let more light into your eye. Doing this lets our optometrists see more of your retina to identify eye diseases.

Ocular Motility Test

Lastly, standard eye exams also involve ocular motility testing. The results of ocular motility tests don’t necessarily hint at the quality of your vision. Instead, these tests can reveal if your eyes and eye muscles are strained.

Schedule an Eye Exam Today at Lock Family Eye Care

Eye exams are crucial for the early detection and intervention of eye and vision conditions that can cause vision loss or blindness, so contact Lock Family Eye Care in West Des Moines, IA, to schedule an eye exam. We can prescribe corrective lenses or provide other treatments to help you see clearly and comfortably, so call us and schedule an appointment today at (515) 267-1312.