General Eye Care Exams

D’Ambrosio Eye Care and its staff of Ophthalmologists, Optometrists and Opticians are able to provide the full range of eye care examinations and services, including general eye care exams. D’Ambrosio Eye Care recommends that all patients have regular eye examinations depending on your age, your health, your family history of eye problems and whether you have been diagnosed or treated for any eye conditions or diseases in the past.

The general eye examination at D’Ambrosio Eye Care will typically entail both the testing of your vision in order to be certain that are seeing as clearly as you should, and a complete evaluation of the health of your eyes. It is important that when you meet with the eye doctors and staff for your eye exam, that you be sure to tell them about any and all medical conditions that you have currently, or have been treated for in the past. In addition it will be necessary for you to tell the eye doctors about any medications you are taking for these medical conditions as well as any medications you have taken in the past for other medical conditions. During your eye examination, please make certain that you review any eye diseases or eye conditions that your family members may have had in the past with the eye doctors.

The first step in your eye exam will be to measure your vision, or visual acuity, with your current eyeglasses or contact lenses. This is familiar to most people and entails reading the eye chart consisting of letters and numbers which get smaller and more difficult as you read down the chart. The measurement of your visual acuity is a good first step to understanding how well you see.

The next step will be to examine the movement of your eyes in order to understand how well the eye muscles function together and how effectively they move your eyes into the different positions of gaze

Next, using a somewhat bright light, the reactions of your pupils to light will be evaluated. By shinning the light into your eyes in different directions a great deal can leaned.

To examine the eyelids, eye lashes, eyelid margins and tear film, the eye doctors will have you sit behind an instrument called a slit lamp biomicroscope that provides both special illumination and magnification. The slit lamp will also be used to carefully examine the sclera or white of your eye, the cornea or clear dome shaped lens on the outside of your eye and then by focusing the slit lamp through the pupil or dark center of the iris-the colored part of the eye-they will be able to examine the health of the crystalline lens, which is where cataracts form.

While you are sitting behind the slit lamp, in order to check for one of the signs of glaucoma it will be necessary for 1-2 eye drops to be placed in your eyes so that the pressure, called intraocular pressure (IOP) can be measured. This is an important diagnostic test for glaucoma. In a

Next, some additional eye drops will be placed in your eyes in order to dilate your pupils. Pupil dilation is important so that the eye doctors can examine the health of the structures in the back of your eye including the retina and its blood vessels and the optic nerve. After the dilation drops are placed in your eye, it will usually take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for the eye drops to fully work and dilate your pupil. Please be patient. You will be asked to relax in one of our comfortable waiting areas while the eye drops work. The thorough examination of the health of the retina and optic nerve through a dilated pupil is not uncomfortable, however the fully widened pupil may make you somewhat sensitive to light and may also blur your vision, especially at near, for a few hours after your eye examination.

Your eye doctor will then check your refraction in order to determine the most accurate eyeglass or contact lens prescription necessary to fully correct your vision. Your should make sure to discuss the type of work and recreational activities you do so that the eye doctor can make specific suggestions about the various types of eyeglass lenses that might be best for your needs. It is also quite important to discuss your work and hobbies with the Optician so that they can help you select a fashionable and appropriate frame style for your particular needs as well as answer and questions about the different types of eyeglass lenses or lens coatings that are available. They eye doctor will provide you with a copy of your prescription that you can take to the D’Ambrosio Eye Care Opticians so that you may purchase whatever eyeglasses or contacts are needed to correct your vision.

First and foremost, any time that you experience a sudden change in your vision, pain, redness, discharge, flashes of light, floaters or spots you should

CALL OUR OFFICE IMMEDIATELY AT 1.800.325.EYES.

Please tell the receptionist if you are experiencing any of these problems so that we can schedule an appointment without delay.

If on the other hand you are in overall good health, and to the best of your knowledge you have not been diagnosed with any eye health problems or eye diseases, scheduling an eye examination every two years is usually sufficient. It is important that, if you have any family member who has been told that they have glaucoma, macular degeneration or are diabetic you will need to be examined at least each year or as directed by your eye doctor or family doctor. A number of eye problems and eye conditions become more frequent with age. In particular, cataract formation and other age related macula problems increase in frequency for patients over 55-60 years of age, even healthy people should consider scheduling a routine eye exam each year if they fall into this age group.

Children should have a pediatric eye examination before they enter school in order to diagnose  eye health muscle coordination, focusing and any other vision problems that might impact learning. Depending on your child’s individual history and your family history, an appropriate frequency for children’s eye exams can be determined.