Digital Retinal Camera
Essentially a DSLR camera, this machine has the appropriate lenses to allow us to get a photo of both the inside and outside of your eyes.
This gives us an accurate and true picture of your ocular appearance during the examination, and allows us to compare and refer back to it in the future to detect any minute changes.
Humphrey's Visual Fields
The visual fields machine allows us to assess the sensitivity of each part of your vision.
It will show a light of varying intensity and location in order to gauge your ability to detect visual signals within your field of view.
Because this test checks the function of your vision, it is very effective in checking for any disruptions in the entire visual process, which includes not just the eyes, but also parts of the brain.
As such, it is used to detect and help diagnose diseases such as glaucoma, strokes, or even tumours.
OCT Angiography
Our new state-of-the-art machine allows us to look underneath the surface of your eyes. It can be thought of as a form of ultrasound for the eyes, which allows us to check for abnormalities which may be lurking beneath the visible parts of the eye.
It is most commonly used for detecting minute changes or helping providing the diagnosis for both glaucoma as well as macular degeneration.
We are also the only practice in West Auckland that possesses the Angiography function, which allow us to detect for changes in the vessels deep within the retina - a key sign of deterioration in macular degeneration and vessel occlusions. Hailed as the next bastion in ocular healthcare, there are even suggestions that it may one day be able to help detect neurological diseases such as Alzheimers.
Corneal Topography
This measures the shape and curvature of the cornea - the front part of your eye.
Some diseases such as Keratoconus can result in a progressively thinning, and increasingly distorted cornea. This machine allows us to check for this irregularity and monitor for progression, which is a key prerequisite in order for any treatment to happen.
This machine is also vital when fitting certain specialty contact lenses - in particular orthokeratology lenses - as we are molding the cornea and thus we need to do this with a great level of precision.
Technology
As part of your examination, we may use multiple pieces of technology to help give us the clearest sense of your eye health.
If you are not familiar with them they may look intimidating, or you may simply wonder if what each of them does and what it tells you about your eye health.
Below is a summary of some of the technology we use as part of our duty of care for your eyes.
Digital Retinal Camera
This machine is essentially a camera with the appropriate lenses to allow us to get a photo of both the inside and outside of your eyes.
This gives us an accurate and true picture of your ocular appearance during the examination, and allows us to compare and refer back to it in the future to detect any minute changes.
Visual Fields Machine
The visual fields machine allows us to assess the sensitivity of each part of your vision.
It will show a light of varying intensity and location in order to gauge your ability to detect visual signals within your field of view.
Because this test checks the function of your vision, it is very effective in checking for any disruptions in the entire visual process, which includes not just the eyes, but also parts of the brain.
As such, it is used to detect and help diagnose diseases such as glaucoma, strokes, or even tumours.
OCT Angiography
Our new state-of-the-art machine allows us to look underneath the surface of your eyes. It can be thought of as a form of ultrasound for the eyes, which allows us to check for abnormalities which may be lurking beneath the visible parts of the eye.
It is most commonly used for detecting minute changes or helping providing the diagnosis for both glaucoma as well as macular degeneration.
We are also the only practice in West Auckland that possesses the Angiography function, which allow us to detect for changes in the vessels deep within the retina - a key sign of deterioration in macular degeneration and vessel occlusions. Hailed as the next bastion in ocular healthcare, there are even suggestions that it may one day be able to help detect neurological diseases such as Alzheimers.
Corneal Topographer
This measures the shape and curvature of the cornea - the front part of your eye.
Some diseases such as Keratoconus can result in a progressively thinning, and increasingly distorted cornea. This machine allows us to check for this irregularity and monitor for progression, which is a key prerequisite in order for any treatment to happen.
This machine is also vital when fitting certain specialty contact lenses - in particular orthokeratology lenses - as we are molding the cornea and thus we need to do this with a great level of precision.
Conclusion
As you can see, each machine gives us a different piece of information for your eye. It is the amalgamation of these key pieces of information about your eyes that allow us to objectively provide a higher level of care in ensuring the vision of your family.
It is not very likely that you would require all of these tests to be done during your eye examination; your optometrist will be able to advise what is recommended in your particular situation.