General Eye Care
The eyes are a precious resource you should not take for granted. Looking out for your eyes, especially early in life, helps ensure they will be happy and healthy for years to come.
Regular vision care, especially annual eye examinations, is essential for preserving eyesight. North Valley Eye Care provides this to your family to ensure you have the eye care you need.
What is an Annual Eye Exam?
An annual eye exam is a crucial component of comprehensive vision care. In addition to evaluating a person’s visual ability, this routine exam looks for signs or symptoms of eye conditions, such as cataracts, glaucoma, or macular degeneration.
Why is an Annual Eye Exam Important?
Due to the risks for many eye conditions increasing with age, eye doctors recommend that everyone over age 40 undergo an eye exam every year. Many eye diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, develop painlessly and cause subtle vision changes that may go unnoticed until significant damage has occurred. Regular exams allow eye doctors to detect these conditions early, often before symptoms become apparent. They also advise certain patients to begin eye exams earlier in life if they have a family history of eye conditions, have been diagnosed with a systemic condition like diabetes, or are experiencing dramatic changes to their vision.
What Should I Expect at an Eye Exam?
All annual exams share similar components and seek to evaluate a person’s eye health in several areas. These exams usually only take an hour or two.
If your pupils are dilated, you may experience light sensitivity and will likely need someone to drive you home. During the exam, your North Valley Eye Care eye doctor and staff will perform several tests, including:
Visual Acuity
Testing your visual acuity is the part of the eye exam that evaluates the sharpness of your vision without using visual aids. You will view objects as they would appear to a person with normal vision at certain distances (for example, twenty feet).
How well you can see these objects is then expressed as a fraction. For instance, 20/20 vision in an eye means seeing an object at twenty feet as clearly as a person who does not require visual aids.
Prescriptions
If your visual acuity score for each eye reveals a deficit in your eyesight, your eye doctor will determine the power of any corrective lenses you need to bring your eyesight up to normal vision. The resulting measurements are known as a prescription, which is then used to create corrective lenses in the form of glasses or contacts.
If you already have one, your eye doctor will measure your visual acuity using your existing prescription as a baseline to determine if any changes are needed.
Pupil Response
The pupil manages the intensity of light that enters the eye. In the presence of bright light, it constricts to assist vision and protect the eye from overexposure to light. In dim light, it dilates to improve viewing of fine detail.
Your eye doctor checks to see if your pupils are operating correctly, including the speed and quality of their responses to light and if both pupils interact equally. Unequal pupils, one appearing larger or smaller than the other, could be a sign of a serious medical condition like optic nerve swelling, a tumor, or a brain concussion.
Eye Movement
The eyes can move in any direction toward an object of focus without the head needing to move. Usually, the eyes move together simultaneously and in the same direction unless there is a condition like strabismus in which the eyes move independently.
Your eye doctor will have you follow an object’s movement to assess how well your eyes move together.
Eye Pressure
The eye contains intraocular fluid that cleanses and nourishes the front portion of the eye. This fluid is constantly recycled with newer fluid generated within the eye to replace older fluid that has drained away. During this cycle, the fluid normally maintains a steady pressure.
However, if the older fluid does not drain properly, the pressure can increase. If it remains high over time, the pressure can damage the optic nerve, leading to an eye condition called glaucoma. The eye exam contains a simple test to measure fluid pressure and possibly the presence of glaucoma.
Examining the Front of Your Eye
Several structures at the front of the eye are essential to sight, including the cornea, the eye’s outer “window,” the pupil, which manages light intensity, and the lens, which focuses or “refracts” light onto the retina. Your eye doctor examines all of these structures for damage or disease. For example, they will examine the lens for any signs of cloudiness, which can indicate that a cataract is forming.
Examining Your Retina and Optic Nerve
The retina comprises light-sensitive cells that line the back of the eye. These cells process the light from the cornea and lens into images, which are then transmitted to the brain along the optic nerve.
Many different eye conditions can affect the function of these vital structures. Your ophthalmologist will examine your retina and optic nerve for any signs of damage or abnormality.
Comprehensive Eye Care at North Valley Eye Care
North Valley Eye Care offers comprehensive eye care services to protect and enhance your eye health, including:
Optical Services
We accept several optical plans, including VSP, EyeMed, and Spectera. We offer a wide assortment of prescription eyewear, from economy to the latest designer frames, and soft contact lenses.
Minor Eye Conditions, Injuries, and Infections
We treat various conditions that may arise within the eye and the eyelids, such as conjunctivitis (pink eye), pterygium (surfer’s eye), or blepharoptosis (droopy eyelid).
Progressive Disease Management
We provide complete medical management for glaucoma, diabetic changes, macular degeneration, cataracts, and more.
Medical Retina Care
We offer general retina care, except for retinal surgical procedures. We offer many treatments that help offset the vacuum of retinal care that extends from Sacramento to Redding, including:
Is it time to prioritize your eyes? Schedule an appointment at North Valley Eye Care in Chico, CA, today!
