EYE EXAMINATION PROCEDURE

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), an estimate of five million children in Vietnam require visual correction for myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. However, a 2022 study found that two out of three children were left uncorrected for their refractive error (RE). This gap underscores the importance of regular eye checks for early detection and treatment.

Regular eye examination is crucial for early detection of vision problems and eye diseases. At Spectrum Eyecare, your eye health is our utmost priority. Our opticians and optometrists are trained to deliver quality and professional eye examinations tailored to your individual lifestyle, habits and vision needs. Let us take you through the 12 steps in our eye examination at Spectrum Eyecare.

12 Steps Eye Examination at Spectrum Eyecare

Step 1: Understanding Your History

Before beginning your eye examination, we seek to understand you as an individual and your background: what prompted your visit, your lifestyle and visual demands, as well as your ocular and general medical history.

This information guides the entire screening and measurement process, allowing us to focus on what matters most to you. It ensures that our solutions are tailored to your specific concerns.

What you can expect:
● Clear understanding of your visual needs. This insight allows us to adapt the examination process to better address your visual needs.
● Personalised eye assessment: With a better understanding of your background, we can tailor our visual solutions to your lifestyle.

Step 2: Baseline Measurement

The various indicators for using an autorefractor include myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia, spectacle and contact lens prescription. This allows us to obtain a quick and reliable baseline measurement of your eyes.

The results from this automated assessment serve as a starting point for our subjective examination.

What you can expect:
● Efficient and accurate measurement: Your baseline prescription is captured within seconds, making the process quick and comfortable.

Step 3: Verifying Your Current Prescription and Eye Examination (With/Without Spectacle)

Using a lensometer, we accurately measure your current spectacle prescription for our records and reference. This provides us with a reliable point of comparison throughout the eye examination.

In the examination room, we further assess your current vision and whether your current spectacle meets your visual needs. This is done by evaluating your visual acuity (VA) for both eyes.

What you can expect:
● Assess the effectiveness of your current spectacle: With this, we can identify whether your lenses are still providing you with clear and comfortable vision, or if adjustments are necessary.
● Monitoring changes in your vision: Recording and comparing your prescription over time allows us to track even subtle changes in your vision. Allows for timely prescription updates for consistent visual clarity.

Step 4: Measuring Your Pupillary Distance (PD)

Measuring the distance between your pupils ensures that the center of the trial lenses is aligned with your optical center (the center of your eyes). This allows us to simulate how you will see through your actual spectacle.

This step is crucial as misalignment of the lens will result in distorted or warped images, leading to symptoms such as headaches or dizziness.

What you can expect:
● Comfortable and optimal vision: Ensures clear and sharp vision for you. Reduces eye strain and discomfort caused by lens misalignment.

Step 5: Objective Refraction (Retinoscopy)

Using the autorefractor result as a starting point, we further verify and refine your prescription by performing a retinoscopy. We observe how light reflects off the back of your eyes and introduce lenses of varying powers to accurately estimate your prescription.

This step allows us to estimate your prescription with accuracy and serves as a reliable foundation for the subjective refinement that follows.

What you can expect:
● Less reliance on guesswork: Similar to the autorefractor, retinoscopy allows us to assess your refractive error without depending on verbal responses.
● Suitable for all ages: In certain cases, the autorefractor may be less reliable. Retinoscopy is ideal for a wide range of patients, including children, elderly, and those with disabilities or communication difficulties. It allows us to directly assess the light reflex in your eyes.

Step 6: Subjective Refraction

Following our objective findings, we refine your prescription according to your responses. Through a series of lens comparisons, we incorporate your visual feedback to achieve the best possible vision. Ensuring your accommodation is relaxed during this step helps to prevent the overuse of your eye muscles, a common cause of headaches and eye strain for spectacle wearers.

This step is a collaborative effort, and your prescription is adjusted to your visual preference.

What you can expect:
● Active involvement in refining your results: Your feedback guides our refinement process.
● Clearer, sharper vision: By fine-tuning your prescription based on your responses, you achieve more optimised clarity.

Step 7: Astigmatism Correction (Jackson Cross Cylinder)

Astigmatism is a common condition that affects one in three people. It often results in blurred or distorted vision. Other symptoms may include glare or haloes around lights, eye strain, frequent squinting, headaches, and visual fatigue.

We assess the presence and orientation of astigmatism using clinical techniques alongside your visual feedback. This ensures any astigmatism attributed to refractive error in your prescription is corrected before refinement.

What you can expect:
● Improved visual sharpness: Proper correction at this stage helps to minimise distortion, blurriness, and visual fatigue.

Step 8: Refining Astigmatism

Once astigmatism is identified, we further refine the correction to achieve the best balance between clarity and comfort.

What you can expect:
● Enhanced visual comfort: Precise refinement helps reduce visual distortion and improves overall visual comfort.
● Reduced eye strain: With the right prescription, it eliminates the need for your eye muscles to constantly adjust to achieve a sharp image.

Step 9: Refining Your Prescription

In this step, we carefully fine-tune your overall prescription to ensure optimal visual performance. We assess how your eyes work together and make final adjustments to ensure your prescription is not only accurate, but also comfortable for everyday use.

What you can expect:
● Improved visual balance: Ensuring a well-balanced prescription is essential for comfortable binocular vision. This allows both eyes to work together harmoniously for depth perception and visual ease.
● A prescription tailored to your visual comfort: Your spectacle is an investment and we want to make sure that you are satisfied with it. By actively being involved in this process, your prescription is refined to your desired level of clarity and comfort.

Step 10: Near Addition for Presbyopia

As we age, our eyes gradually lose the ability to focus on nearby objects. This refractive error is known as Presbyopia. It typically becomes noticeable in your early to mid-40s, worsening over the years.

Following your concern, we will conduct additional tests to find the most suitable and comfortable power for your near vision and lifestyle. This ensures that your visual needs for your near tasks, such as reading, phone use, and daily close-up work, are still met.

What you can expect:
● Corrected near vision: Clear and comfortable vision for reading, phone use, and other close-up tasks.
● Improved quality of life: Reduced eye strain and fatigue, optimum clarity met for both distance and near vision.

Step 11: Consultation

At Spectrum Eyecare, we believe that achieving and maintaining good vision is a collaborative effort, built on clear communication and personalised guidance. Upon completing your refraction, we will review and explain our findings with you. We will walk you through the assessment, highlight any changes in your prescription, and address any findings that may require further attention.

Based on your results, we will also advise on proper eye care habits to support your long-term visual health.

What you can expect:
● Detailed explanation of your results: We believe that every patient deserves to be well-informed about their eye health.
● Proper eye care advice: Maintaining a healthy vision goes beyond regular eye checks and vision correction. Your daily habits are a significant factor, and therefore, we provide practical guidance to support long-term visual comfort and eye health.

Step 12: Lens Selection

In this final step, we guide you through selecting the lens that best suits your prescription, lifestyle, and visual demands.

From lens ranges to lens indices, we take the time to explain each option and offer our professional advice so that you can make an informed decision. By empowering you to take ownership of your choices, we ensure you leave fully satisfied and confident in your investment in your vision.

What you can expect:
● Professional advice: Clear, expert guidance to help you understand your lens options.
● Personalised recommendations: Solutions tailored to your lifestyle, daily activities, and visual demands for optimal comfort and performance.
● Confidence in your decision: Making a well-informed decisions allows you to feel confident in your investment.

MEET THE TEAM

At Spectrum Eyecare, our team of experienced optometrists and opticians is dedicated to delivering thoughtful, high-quality eye care service to you. With years of clinical and retail experience, we guide you through every step of your eye examination, ensuring your needs and concerns are carefully considered and properly addressed in our solutions.

As graduates of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine (PNTU), our optometrists have a strong foundation in thorough eye examinations, refractive care and recognised optometric practices. This foundation sets the expectation for our team to practise with accuracy, consistency, and adherence to proper examination protocols.

As we continue to grow, our commitment remains unchanged — to provide personalised, professional care, so you can feel confident knowing your vision is in trusted hands at every visit.

We Care for Your Vision

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