Sight Test and Eye Health Check

After a friendly 'Hello' and 'My name is', you should find yourself in the chair of the consulting room with your optometrist asking questions to establish reasons for your visit and what symptoms you may be experiencing with your eyes. An inquiry into your general health, medications taken, family health and eye history is quite normal and essential as many factors can affect your eyes. Your prescription will then be determined after the data from the eye exam has been entered into the computerized testing unit also known as a Phoropter. You will find yourself looking at a succession of test charts through various lenses placed into the unit. Your optometrist will ask questions about the charts, which will determine whether you are far-sighted, near-sighted, astigmatic, presbyopic, or a combination of these. The equipment also enables us to check your eye muscles, so tests which tell us if the two eyes are working together can be done. Furthermore, your close-up vision will be assessed to ensure that no prescription is required when you are on the computer or reading a book.

Using an ophthalmoscope and perhaps a microscope or camera, your eye health will then be assessed all the way from front to back.

Extra tests like Depth Perception, Color Vision, Visual Fields and Eye Pressures may be required and your optometrist will inform you if this is necessary. The most common extra tests are visual fields, fundus photography and eye pressures. Additionally, drops may be used to better check your retinal health for signs of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, or retinal detachments. We also screen for cataracts and signs of glaucoma in every patient.

At the end of the consultation your optometrist will discuss your sight and eye health with you as well as all the options available if treatment is required. Please feel free to ask your optometrist anything, as it is our aim that you leave feeling reassured and happy.


Pressure Test

At The Barrington Eye Center use is made of a non-contact Tonometer which measures eye pressure. It works by allowing a gentle puff of air on to the front of your eye, which changes the shape very briefly. At a certain level of shape change the instrument is calibrated to represent a certain level of pressure. By means of a system of lights it measures how long it takes for your eye to change to the calibrated shape. This time taken is proportional to your eye pressure. It then does a math trick and gives the doctor your eye pressure reading in a matter of seconds! As it is a non-contact instrument it is completely sterile and no risk of infection exists at all.


Visual Field Test
Visual field tests often seem more complicated than they are. At Barrington Eye Center, our visual field tests are actually lots of fun and can be likened quite simply to a harmless game of space invaders. The only difference is that you have to keep your eye in one place the whole time. Each time you think you see a spot of light, as with the aliens in space invaders, you hit a button and it lets us know. The purpose of field-testing is to check your peripheral vision, which may be affected in some cases. The most common eye condition causing field loss is Chronic or Primary Open Angle Glaucoma. Sometimes more serious conditions like pituitary tumours or stroke may be caught by having a field test. In this case, the field test could be a lifesaver.