EYE EXAM

A complete eye exam involves a series of tests designed to evaluate your vision and check for eye diseases. Your eye doctor may use a variety of instruments, shine bright lights directly at your eyes and request that you look through an array of lenses. Each test during an eye exam evaluates a different aspect of your vision or eye health.

Slit-lamp examination

Your eye doctor may use a microscope called a slit lamp to examine the front of your eye. The microscope focuses an intense narrow line of light on your eye. The slit lamp provides a magnified, 3-D view of the eye and allows your doctor to detect any small abnormalities. Used with an ophthalmoscope and special lenses, the slit lamp also provides detailed views of the back of the eye.

Refraction assessment

To determine your prescription for glasses, your doctor does a refraction assessment. He or she asks you to look through a mask-like device that contains wheels with different lenses of different strengths (phoropter) to help judge which combination gives you the sharpest vision

Visual acuity test

During a common test for visual acuity, your doctor has you read from a Snellen chart to determine how well you can see letters from across the room