Screening

Glaucoma Screening

What is glaucoma?

There are 4 major types of Glaucoma:

  1. Chronic glaucoma (slow onset).
  2. Acute glaucoma (sudden onset).
  3. Secondary glaucoma (caused by another eye condition).
  4. Congenital or developmental glaucoma (a condition in babies caused by malformation of the eye).

Glaucoma is classified to a group of eye conditions where the optic nerve is damaged at the point where it leaves an individual’s eye. The optic nerve is primarily responsible for carrying images from the retina, the light-sensitive membrane attached to the inner surface of the eye, to the brain.

Major symptoms of glaucoma

Chronic glaucoma generally includes no symptoms and the eye may seem normal. This isn’t painful & stressful and at first, your vision may be unaffected.

Why test for glaucoma?

Doctors say that chronic glaucoma affects one percent of people over 40 and five percent of people over 65. The risk of this eye disease increases with age and if left untreated, it can cause blindness in the future. If you are above 40 and have a family history of glaucoma, then you should have an eye test every 12 months.

What choose Opticare?

Glaucoma Screening is carried out as a part of our standard eye examination. It helps us to make certain you can see well, your eyes work properly, and are healthy and free of disease. This test involves:

  1. Measurement of the intra-ocular pressures.
  2. Examination of the optic disc.
  3. Visual field assessment.

Early detection and treatment is essential to prevent or delay the progression of more serious visual problems. As most early forms of glaucoma are without symptoms, regular screening, especially with increase in age, is essential to maintain healthy eyes.

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Diabetic Retinal Screening

Regular eye screening is one of the best ways to detect diabetic retinopathy before you notice any changes in your sight. Specialised digital photography is primarily used to look for changes that could affect your sight.

What is diabetic retinopathy?

Diabetes is a problem that can affect the eyesight and diabetic changes may first become apparent in the eye. It is, therefore, important that diabetic patients are screened on a regular basis and the Optometrist informs the patient’s GP of the results and any changes in ocular health.

When the condition is caught at the early stage, treatment is performed to reduce or prevent damage to your sight. Diabetic patients are typically recommended to undergo an eye examination annually.

Your Opticare screening appointment

The aim of this service is to reduce the risk of sight loss amongst individuals with diabetes by the fast & prompt identification as well as effective treatment if required.

Your appointment involves a regular eye examination followed by a few mydriatic eyedrops, which dilate the pupil to enable the Optometrist to see the vessels at the back of the eye clearly through an enlarged image. Once the vessels are clearly visible, the Optometrist takes the picture of the vessels using our state of the art digital camera technology. These images are kept stored and may be used to monitor changes. Diabetic eye screening is available free of charge to all diabetic patients funded by the health services depending on the local health authority.

Book a Diabetic Retinal Eye Exam

Why Opticare?

We recognise that patients with diabetes need special care and we are here to make sure they receive a high standard diabetic retinal screening service. Our team of Opticians have undergone several years of specialist training and National accreditation in the screening program, and are highly dedicated to making you feel comfortable and keeping you informed throughout your screening.

Retinal Photography

At Opticare Opticians, we provide our patients with a highly advanced retinal photography service, which scans the retina to rule out or screen for eye diseases.

Why use retinal photography?

The main objective of using this technology is to improve our ability to determine the status of your retina health in a better way. Early detection of eye disease is crucial and retinal photography helps us diagnose potential problems before they become too serious.

Our experienced and highly skilled Opticians may recommend patients to have retinal photography, so that they can view and record your retina at up to 100 times its normal size.

At Opticare you can expect:

  • An annual eye wellness screening photograph.
  • An in-depth view of the retinal surface.
  • A discussion with your optician regarding the images.
  • A permanent record for your medical file, for a year to year comparison and diagnosis.
  • A quick, easy, comfortable experience.
  • Typically no dilation drops.
  • The ability to email images to specialists as required.

This technology allows our optometrists to record a detailed photo of the retina and evaluate any retinal problems, such as retinal holes, glaucoma, macula degeneration, detachments and diabetic retinopathy, all of which can lead to partial loss of vision or blindness. Systemic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes may also be detected during a retinal examination.

Why Opticare?

At Opticare Opticians, we take and store the picture of the retina to build up the record for each individual patient. This helps us to monitor the progression of diverse eye conditions. If a patient is referred for specialist opinion, the image can easily be reproduced to accompany the referral letter pinpointing the anomaly found.

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Visual Dyslexia Screening

What is visual dyslexia?

Individuals with dyslexic difficulties are prone to experience visual disturbance or discomfort when reading print. In general, most dyslexics face problems in seeing words differently to an efficient reader. They often mix their “b” and “p” or read the word “pot” when in fact the word “top” appears on the page, but they aren’t flipping the letters or word so much as they just have trouble finding and retrieving them from memory.

Various visual dyslexia symptoms

  • Slow reading, poor spelling, great difficulty sounding out words, especially unfamiliar ones.
  • Preschool warning signs include difficulty learning the alphabet, delayed speech, confusion of left & right, inability to rhyme words, before and after and other directional or relational words, poor pencil grip and messy writing.
  • Facing difficulty in rhyming, tying shoes and reading a clock with hands also come under reliable signs of dyslexia.
  • Reading problems are typically unexpected relative to other cognitive abilities or skills.
  • It varies from mild to severe, with different symptoms varying in degree and number accordingly.

How Opticare can help

Intuitive coloured overlay testing is performed for patients who experience difficulty with reading. This test is performed separately from the eye examination and takes approximately half an hour. Some dyslexic patients benefit from the use of a visual tracking magnifier. Once the coloured overlay test is completed, the rate of reading is recorded to compare speed with and without the overlay/magnifier, this confirms if an improvement is achieved.

The aim of our test is to identify the major causes of visual dyslexia and help you find the best treatments to assist with reading and writing skills. On the basis of these tests, we at Opticare will suggest to you the best treatments to improve any visual problems.

Book a Visual Dyslexia Test

Low Vision Clinic

Unfortunately for some patients, spectacles do not improve vision sufficiently enough for everyday tasks. In these instances low vision aids are used to maximise the patients remaining vision, very often advice upon the correct use of lighting makes a significant difference.

What is the Opticare low vision clinic?

The low vision clinic runs separately from the routine eye examination, initial appointments take approximately half an hour, follow on appointments are much quicker. The low vision clinic deals with the use of magnifying aids and telescopes to maximise reduced vision, also general practical aids and advice to enhance everyday life. Opticare prides itself in the service offered to the often vulnerable visually impaired patient.

Book a Low Vision Clinic Appointment