Routine Eye Exams

We provide routine comprehensive eye exams at all of our locations in Willingboro, Langhorne, Moorestown and Millville. All of our board certified eye doctors perform routine eye exams using the latest in technology. Each of our locations is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment to help our board certified doctors give you the very best eye examination possible.

Your exam will take about 1-2 hours, depending upon the number of additional testing which may be required.

Among other things, please bring your any glasses and contact lenses you use routinely. Bring your contact lens boxes with you if possible. You should bring a list of your medications and we will want to obtain a complete medical history prior to the examination.

Visual Acuity Testing

The first step to your eye exam will include testing your visual acuity. This will be done with your glasses or contact lens in place as we will be testing your distance vision. We will be testing how well you see at a standard distance of 20 feet. Each eye will be tested alone. Your reading vision will be tested as well using a near vision card (a smaller eye chart positioned at your normal reading distance).

Intraocular Pressure

Measuring the eye pressure is standard practice for every routine eye exam.  Intraocular pressure (IOP) is a risk factor for certain diseases, including glaucoma. Your eye will be numbed with a fluorescent yellow dye before the eye pressure is measured by either applanation, Tonopen or sometimes, a puff of air.

Normal pressures are between 16 and 21 mmHg, but these limits vary from individual to individual.

Color Blindness and Stereo Acuity

These tests are especially important with our pediatric patients as color blindness is usually hereditary and can be diagnosed at an early age. Problems with stereo acuity are important to diagnose in children as this may be a sign of ocular motility problems.

Ocular Motility

We will check to make sure that each eye moves in all directions and equally. We will also check to make sure that the two eyes work well together. We have many ways of examining your eye movements, but variations of a cover test are usually very successful in determining slight changes in eye movements.

Children are often born with problems with eye movements, called strabismus. Adults can develop ocular motility issues associated with trauma or disease.

Refraction

There are several ways to obtain your refraction. Refraction, knowing the prescription of your eyes, is an important part to your eye examination. Refraction measures the lenses needed to focus images on your retina. Refraction also determines astigmatism.

Retinoscopy is a highly skilled procedure used especially with infants or young children or other situations where the patient can not read or speak. A retinoscope allows your eye doctor to objectively approximate your prescription.

Auto-refraction can automatically measure your glasses. We will then fine tune in the exact prescription in the examination room. A phoropter is the device which contains all the different lenses which we use to improve your vision in the examination room.

Refraction will determine how well you see with correction; using glasses or contact lenses. Refraction will then determine if you are farsighted (hyperopic), nearsighted (myopic) or have normal near vision loss (presbyopia).

Slit Lamp Examination

The slit lamp allows your eye doctors to examine every part of your eye, from the front to the back using a combination of magnification, various angles and widths of light and other special lenses. Every part of your eye can be visualized with the use of a slit lamp.

Another name for use of a slit lamp is a biomicroscope. Essentially, a slit lamp is a microscope which allows not only magnification, but allows your eye doctor to see in stereo (depth).

Using the slit lamp, different parts of the eye can be examined in detail;

• Eye lids and lashes
• Cornea (the clear front part of the eye, where a contact lens rests)
• Conjunctiva (clear outer coating to the eye)
• Anterior chamber (space in between the cornea and the iris)
• Iris (colored part of the eye containing the pupil)
• Lens (which may become a cataract)
• Vitreous
• Optic nerve (glaucoma may damage)
• Macula
• Retina

Pupil Dilation

Dilating your pupils will us to better examine your retina, vitreous and optic nerve.  Drops can take 20-30 minutes for dilation to take full effect.  Dilation times vary based on your age (younger take longer) and the color of your eyes (blue dilate the fastest). Some eye diseases require additional drops to achieve a moderate amount of dilation.

Visual Field Test

This measures your peripheral vision and is often used to evaluate patients with glaucoma. It can also diagnose certain types of stroke or brain tumors.

Optical Coherence Tomography

This is allows us to examine your optic nerve and retina in high resolution looking for damage to the optic nerve in cases of glaucoma. OCT is also helpful for determining certain retinal diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and others.