I'm having my first eye exam tomorrow. What should I expect?
Like KB said, it really isn't a bad experience. I'm 22 now, but I went to my first eye exam when I was in the 5th grade. I think the worst part was always the "puff of air" test used to check for glaucoma (this is when you look into a machine and a quick puff of air goes into each eye), but with new technology, that test is not near as common as it was when I was your age. You can also expect: 1) Visual Acuity Test: You will have to look at a chart with letters across the room to determine how well you can see them. 2) Refraction Assessment: You will look through a phoroptor (like a high-tech mask with wheels of different lenses) to determine which combination of lenses will give you the best vision. * This is where the doctor will ask "Which looks better, A or B?" 3) Slit-Lamp Examination: This will be a microscope with a small light to see any small abnormalities on the front or back of your eye. As you probably already know, 20/20 vision is perfect, and from there with testing, your doctor will determine what your vision is. Say you have 20/100 vision; This means that you would have to stand 20 feet away from something too see it, when someone with normal vision could see from 100 feet away. Give or take a test or two, these are the most common. Trust me though, if I had a choice to see any kind of doctor, I'd go with the eye doctor. You'll be fine. Good luck.
Should I get my pupils dilated when having an eye exam?
I would. I never had a dilated eye exam until my twenties and was wearing the wrong prescription, probably since elementary school. Pupil dilation does have a number of purposes. It allows your doctor to examine the back of your eye and make sure the structures are healthy (ie your optic nerve and retina). It also temporarily paralyzes the muscles that constrict your pupil and allows your doctor to objectively measure your need for glasses (or contacts) with a retinascope. Based on the way the light bounces off the back of your eye, your doctor can determine what prescription will focus rays of light on your retina (the back of your eye that turns light into electrical signals that are sent to the brain) to allow you to best see clearly. When your pupil constricts (b/c of the light being shined in your eyes), the measure for glasses is less accurate b/c you're changing the shape of the lens inside your eye. Your doctor should follow up with a subjective exam (the part where they ask you which is better, one or two) Different doctors use different dilating drops. Most adults are given the shorter acting drops. They may dilate your pupils for 4-6 hours, longer if you have light blue eyes. If you don't bring your own sunglasses, many clinics have temporary sunglasses, as your eyes may be light sensitive. Some clinics also have "reversing" drops to reverse the effects of the dilating drops. I would guess most insurances cover dilating drops, as it is a routine thing to have at an eye appointment, but you might want to specifically ask your insurance company. Like I said, I would do it. I wish I had it earlier. My prescription was off for years (b/c I had unknowingly been changing the shape of the lens inside my eye when reading the eye chart). I had a lot of headaches, etc. You should also get your contact lenses checked, especially if you're a new contact lens wearer. Sometimes they don't sit on the front of your eye as they're supposed to. Whoever prescribed your contacts should be able to check. I have astigmatism as well and don't see as well in soft contacts as I do in glasses b/c the lenses moved around and didn't "settle" with the weighted part of the contacts where it's supposed to be every time I blinked. Good luck to you!
Should i wear eye makeup to an eye exam?
If you're getting contacts, I would say take off your eye makeup before you go. I wear contacts and I never wear eye makeup for an eye exam. Putting in contacts, and they will put a trial pair in if you don't require anything special they don't have trial pairs for, could end up with makeup underneath the contact. That would actually be very painful if a flake of your mascara or eyeliner gets in your eye beneath the contact.
Adderall effects on eye and contact exam?
I took a 30mg adderall xr this morning and I have an eye and contact exam tomorrow evening. The adderall is wearing off and I know it will completely wear off in the next hour or two because that's how long 30mg last for me. I will be getting sleep tonight, so don't think I'm going to be up all night. Is there anyway this adderall will still have some kind of effect on me and my eye exams tomorrow? Do the eye doctors do urine or other kinds of tests that will find adderall in my system? Should I reschedule my exam to next week or will the adderall taken the previous day have no effect on my eyes and the eye exams?
Eye Exam: Should i take off my eye makeup for an eye exam?
I wore make up once to an eye exam, and I wear heavy eyeliner and eye shadow, the Doctor didn't ask me to take it off when I got there but a lot of it was either smudged for came off during the exam. My advice to you would be to just remove it prior to the exam just in case your doctor would like you to remove it and then reapply it once you're done, because more than likely sometime during the exam some proping or eye drops will be done to your eyes and it'll be messed up anyway.
I think i need glasses but am scared of an eye test, any help?
I'm 16 and I sometimes get blurry vision and my eyes sting when i look at things far away. The thought of some optician person i dont know, touching and looking at my eyes comepletely freaks me out! I really dont know what to do and im scared to ask my mum for an eye test. Please help, its appreiciated! xxx