Eye Examinations

You should have a regular eye examination every 2 years, or more frequently if advised by your optometrist or doctor.  These examinations should assess your vision and especially check the health of your eyes by testing for conditions such as cataract and glaucoma.

Some forms of eye disease may require only observation or relatively simple treatment.  If more serious eye disease is detected, however, we will refer you to an ophthalmologist (eye specialist).  Part of the eye examination is devoted to looking for eye signs of general body disease such as diabetes or elevated blood pressure.  So it is important to have regular eye examinations.

We recognise that your eye health and vision may change over time, and subtle changes and symptoms may not be noticeable to you.  To keep track of these subtle changes, as part of your examination we now also take a photograph of the back of your eyes and store the image digitally on computer for comparison with future images.  Very few optometry practices are able to provide this latest technology.

We can also advise you on a wide range of vision and eye health issues such as computer use, general eye protection, vision for sport, eye exercises, laser eyesight correction and modern cataract surgery.

Generally speaking your consultation fees are rebateable under Medicare, making it easy and inexpensive for you to keep a regular check on your eye health.  Whenever possible we will endeavour to bulk-bill your consultation to save you from having to pay us and then claim from Medicare.  In some circumstances, however, Medicare may reject your claim, most usually when there has been a full consultation item paid for a visit to another optometrist within the previous two years.  Should this be the case we will contact you for full payment of the visit fee, after which you can make your claim from Medicare.  In these circumstances Medicare typically rebates you for about half the cost of the examination, leaving you out of pocket by about $30.

Important components of your eye examination include:
* discussion of your history and symptoms
* assessment of your existing spectacles
* refraction - this determines which lens powers give you best vision
* binocular tests which determine how well your eyes work together as a team
* pupil reflexes
* measurement of intra-ocular pressure - an important part of screening for glaucoma
* digital imaging, the taking of a photograph of your retina and an important part of screening for eye disease
* biomicroscopy, the use of a specialised microscope to view a magnified image of the front parts of your eye