Why They Dilate your Eyes for an Eye Exam

by | Mar 16, 2016 | Business

Getting routine eye exams at our Eye Doctor in Monterey is a critical method of monitoring your general and optical health. Part of a complete eye examination is pupil dilation, accomplished by placing eye drops inside the eye that’ll force the pupil to remain open, even within bright light. The treatment isn’t uncomfortable, yet it represents a loss of part of the day, as drops take around half-an-hour to work, and you’ll have a hard time seeing for about one hour after the exam, until drops stop working. Some individuals question if they have to have pupil dilation with each eye exam.

Allows vision to the back of the eye

Pupil dilation is very important, because it’ll allow the optometrist to see all of the way into the back of your eye. Within a regular eye exam, the eye doctor uses a lens and bright light to peer into the eye, assessing the health of the iris, lens, and cornea of the eye. But, the bright light leads the pupil to contract, and makes it challenging for the eye doctor to view the back of the eye. As the routine eye exam is performed, the optometrist dilates the pupils so that he may fully check the health of your eyes.

The back of your eye hosts the optic nerve, retina, and critical blood vessels. As the pupils are open, the eye doctor will have the ability to clearly view those parts of the eye and assess them. The treatment reveals general health issues such as hypertension, and also can catch the indications of cataracts and glaucoma early. For those reasons, eye doctors ask their patients to do the procedure each visit, in spite of the inconvenience, because they’d rather catch severe medical issues early.

Frequency of eye exams

Healthy adults ought to have an eye exam, alongside pupil dilation, every 1 – 2 years, or more frequently as advised by our Eye Doctor in Monterey. Individuals at risk for developing optical disorders might have to have their eyes evaluated more frequently. Remember to bring along some sunglasses to the exam, in order for the bright light outside not to hurt the eyes after the exam. The eye doctor’s office usually will have multiple pairs of disposable sunglasses, too, in case you fail to bring them. Because you might feel disoriented after dilation, you also may want to think about asking somebody else to take you to the appointment.

Getting routine eye exams at our Eye Doctor in Monterey is a critical method of monitoring your general and optical health. For more information on our Eye Doctor in Monterey, contact Monterey Bay Eye Center today at 831.372.1500.

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