Comprehensive eye exams
An exam that looks past the letters on the chart.
Forty five to sixty minutes, at the same visit, in the same building South Shore Eye Associates has worked out of since 1981.
Your prescription is half of it.
A comprehensive eye exam settles your prescription through refraction, then keeps going. We check pressure and the optic nerve for glaucoma, look at the macula for early degeneration, check for diabetic changes in the retina, and assess the lens for cataracts. Some of what turns up is not about your eyes at all. The blood vessels in the retina can show the first sign of high blood pressure or high cholesterol before either has caused a symptom you would notice.
If dilation is needed
Some exams call for dilating drops to get a fuller look at the back of the eye. When that is the case, we tell you before your appointment, not after, so you can plan for a few hours of light sensitivity and, if you need it, arrange a ride. Diabetic patients are examined yearly as a matter of course, since diabetic eye disease can progress without any change in vision.
South Shore Eye, Independent and locally owned since 1981. Call (508) 238-8460.
How often
An eye exam schedule that changes with you.
Infants
First exam, 6 to 12 months
We check alignment, pupil response and early visual development, not a chart. Most infants do fine with this and most parents are more nervous than the baby.
Children
Every year
A school screening tests distance clarity and stops there. It misses the alignment and focusing problems that make reading and schoolwork harder than they should be.
Adults
Every year
An annual exam is how a small change gets caught as a trend instead of a surprise. Prescriptions drift, and so does the health of the eye itself.
Seniors, 60 and up
Every year
This is when cataracts, macular degeneration and glaucoma become more common, and when catching a change early matters most.