It is positioned very close to your eye as your eye doctor looks through it to focus on the back of your eye. Your eye doctor (typically after your pupil is dilated) will examine your fundus with one or more of the following instruments or procedures:ĭirect ophthalmoscope - This is a small, hand-held instrument with a bright light. The term fundoscopy (or ophthalmoscopy) describes an examination of the back of the eyeball - where the retina, the blood vessels that feed the retina and the optic nerve are located. Many people find it’s comforting to take a short nap after a dilated eye exam until the effect has worn off. If necessary, you will be given a pair of disposable sunglasses at your doctor’s office to wear home after your exam. For this reason, it’s a good idea to bring dark sunglasses with you to your exam and consider having someone drive you home). Your pupils usually will remain dilated for about two to three hours (in other words, for a period of time that extends beyond your diabetic eye exam. It takes about 20 minutes for your pupils to fully enlarge, and you typically will be escorted to a reception/waiting area to wait for the dilation to take effect. This temporarily makes your pupils much larger and eliminates their normal reaction to light, allowing your eye doctor to get a much better view of the back of your eye ( fundus) to check for damage to the retina from diabetes.Įye drops are applied to your eyes to cause pupil dilation. In most diabetic eye exams, your pupils will be dilated with eye drops. To evaluate your best possible visual acuity with new lenses To see if there’s been a significant change to your eyeglasses prescription If your visual acuity has decreased since your last exam, your eye doctor may also perform a refraction. So a visual acuity test is almost always included in a diabetic eye exam. Your eye doctor or an assistant will check your visual acuity with an eye chart.ĭiabetes can cause several changes inside your eyes that can affect the clarity of your vision. The following tests and procedures are commonly performed in most diabetic eye exams: Visual acuity testing What does a diabetic eye exam include?ĭiabetic eye exams can vary in length and scope, depending on what your eye doctor feels is necessary to successfully manage your condition.įor example, if you have just been diagnosed with diabetes and you’ve recently had a comprehensive eye exam that showed no signs of diabetic retinopathy, your follow-up diabetic eye exam may require your doctor to simply recheck the condition of your retina.īut if you’ve had diabetes for a number of years and your doctor has already detected signs of retinopathy or other eye problems related to your disease, your diabetic eye exam may be more extensive and may even include some form of in-office treatment. Let’s go over what a diabetic eye exam is, what’s involved and why it’s so important. A diabetic eye exam is a detailed evaluation of the health of your retina and other parts of the eye that can be affected by diabetes.
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