Optometrists are the primary eye care providers. They should be the first place you go to if you have an eye or vision problem. But which one to go to?
There is a saying that goes like this:
“You can be the best carpenter in the world but if you have a blunt chisel you will not make a great bookcase”.
The same applies to delivering great eye care. Using high-end technology allows a great optometrist to really perform the most in-depth analysis of your eyes.
There is equipment that can be considered basic and then there is advanced equipment that allows the optometrist to make subtle observations or follow eye health over time and detect subtle change that can represent the beginning of eye disease.
Basic equipment
- Refractor Head – this instrument measures extend of vision blur and is responsible for obtaining your spectacle prescription.
- Biomicroscope – magnifies the front of the eye up to 45 times. It is responsible for diagnosing what type of conjunctivitis might be affecting an eye or detecting cataracts. It can also be used with sophisticated lenses to observed the back of the eye called the retina.
At The Eye Practice we have upgraded these two very important pieces of equipment, which is not common to find at other optometrical practices. Our refractor head is similar to the one in this picture. It is fully-automated.
Having a fully-automated refractor head means that the eye testing procedure is far easier for YOU as the patient.
The old spectacle prescription can be transferred into the instrument at a press of a button. Once the testing process is complete it is possible to compare the vision of the old prescription to the new prescription instantly.
Subtle prescription changes can be judged by the patient. It involves the patient in the decision-making process.
Once the final prescription is measured it can then be transferred accurately into the patient’s computerised record without the optometrist having to type anything in. Apart from being much quicker it is also eliminates the risk of the optometrist accidentally copying the prescription down incorrectly into the patient record. If this occurs it is likely that the glasses will be made incorrectly and then need to be re-manufactured.
At The Eye Practice our Biomicroscope is hooked up to a digital camera, which allows us to photograph anything we see that is clinically significant. The old saying: “A picture says a thousand words” is very true when it comes to documenting observations. It is very difficult to describe in words what we are seeing, whereas if it is photographed we will know exactly what we are comparing from visit to visit.
The cutting edge of technology
Even basic instrumentation can be upgraded to use the latest in computerised technology, but it does not end there. Eye testing has come forward in leaps and bounds with all sorts of instruments available to upgrade the quality of the eye test.
Instruments such as the Stratus OCT, Cirrus OCT, Visante OCT, Matrix Visual Field Analyser, Medmont Corneal Topographer, Rodenstock Impressionist are just some of the unique instruments that are not available in most eye care facilities that are available at The Eye Practice.
In future posts we will discuss each of these instruments in detail and why we believe they add value in giving our patients peace of mind about their eyes.
