One of the most precious parts of the body that deserve the best possible care is your eyes. When your eye doctor wants to conduct tests and examinations to diagnose underlying retinal conditions, it is always better to understand these various ways. Your ophthalmologist or optometrist will assess the health of your eyes during routine eye exams. Your eye doctor can recommend a digital retinal imaging eye exam if you are passing your 50s and 60s or you have any conditions such as diabetes.
By taking a picture of the back of your eye, digital retinal imaging will help your optometrist visualize the blood vessels, surrounding structures, and the health of the retina. Here are a few ways this eye exam can benefit you if you’re wondering why you need a digital retinal imaging exam.
No Side EffectsThere are no side effects with digital retinal photography. You won’t experience light sensitivity or temporary blurring of vision, typical of the traditional methods. And after the test, you can drive yourself back home with ease.
Detects Specific Eye DiseasesFor your ophthalmologist to detect certain diseases of the eye and also follow up on them, digital retinal imaging is necessary for this. Some of these eye diseases include:
Opportunity to Save the ImagesFor future reference, you and your physician can save the images captured by this method. And instead of examining you in person, your physician can examine the images. While you won’t have any chance of seeing the images in future visits, it is only your physician that can view the images with traditional methods like dilation.
Dilation vs. Digital Retinal ImagingThe process whereby your physician places some eye drops to dilate your eyes for them to visualize your retinal with a bright light and magnifying glass is called dilation. For a few hours, you can experience blurring of vision from these drops. Since it saves you the extra time spent and doesn’t require this step of dilation, digital retinal imaging is superior to overdilation and examination. It also improves diagnosis since, with digital imaging, your doctor can see up to 80 percent of your eyes as against 15 percent from dilation.
At Two Trees Optometry, we have incorporated a digital retinal imaging system into our practice to perform retinal screenings. This device is highly sensitive and will help us better detect early disease, including tumors, macular degeneration, hypertension, retinopathy, diabetes, and other retinal conditions.
By taking a picture of the back of your eye, digital retinal imaging will help your optometrist visualize the blood vessels, surrounding structures, and the health of the retina. Here are a few ways this eye exam can benefit you if you’re wondering why you need a digital retinal imaging exam.
No Side EffectsThere are no side effects with digital retinal photography. You won’t experience light sensitivity or temporary blurring of vision, typical of the traditional methods. And after the test, you can drive yourself back home with ease.
Detects Specific Eye DiseasesFor your ophthalmologist to detect certain diseases of the eye and also follow up on them, digital retinal imaging is necessary for this. Some of these eye diseases include:
- Changes to the eye as a result of diabetes: over time, diabetes can cause changes to the blood vessels in the eyes, and this change can damage vision. It will then result in diabetic retinopathy.
- Macular degeneration: This condition is a result of degeneration of the parts of the eye due to age, which worsens the eyesight. The condition can result in vision loss. And to detect this early, retinal imaging is quite essential.
- Glaucoma: you will have this condition when the fluid slowly builds up in the front of your eyes, damaging the optic nerve and increasing the pressure, resulting in vision loss.
Opportunity to Save the ImagesFor future reference, you and your physician can save the images captured by this method. And instead of examining you in person, your physician can examine the images. While you won’t have any chance of seeing the images in future visits, it is only your physician that can view the images with traditional methods like dilation.
Dilation vs. Digital Retinal ImagingThe process whereby your physician places some eye drops to dilate your eyes for them to visualize your retinal with a bright light and magnifying glass is called dilation. For a few hours, you can experience blurring of vision from these drops. Since it saves you the extra time spent and doesn’t require this step of dilation, digital retinal imaging is superior to overdilation and examination. It also improves diagnosis since, with digital imaging, your doctor can see up to 80 percent of your eyes as against 15 percent from dilation.
At Two Trees Optometry, we have incorporated a digital retinal imaging system into our practice to perform retinal screenings. This device is highly sensitive and will help us better detect early disease, including tumors, macular degeneration, hypertension, retinopathy, diabetes, and other retinal conditions.
