The eye is one of the fundamental sense organs in our body. Taking care of your eye health is as important as your skin.

The general misconception about eye health check-ups is that you need an eye check-up only when you start perceiving your vision as blurry.

But when I talk about an optometry point of view, an eye check-up is much more than just checking your refractive error.

Importance of regular eye-check-up: -

• Regular eye check-up is required to see this beautiful world with the utmost clarity. It is important for the proper visual function of the body for distance and near both. It is required to check the periodic progression or degradation of the visual function. Having your eyes fully corrected helps you with daily errands.
• An optometrist does not look for your refractive status in the eye but also the ocular condition and any type of manifestation of a disease or an infection. Some problems if detected early can be cured.
• In 75% of cases, blindness can be prevented if an early clinical investigation was done. Getting your eyes tested on a regular basis helps you prevent no eye complications and reduces their progression.
• Many ocular symptoms such as Age-Related Macular Degeneration, glaucoma, etc. later become incurable if not treated in time.
• Glaucoma is one of the silent killers of your visual health. I will not be overestimating if I say glaucoma can be called "a silent thief for your eyesight". Its symptoms only became prominent when a patient suffered a major amount of visual function loss. By the time it breaks its silence it has come to a position where it is very difficult to restore the vision. Therefore, an early diagnosis of glaucoma is very helpful in preventing eyesight damage.
• An early retina check-up is very helpful in finding the symptoms of Age-Related Macular Degeneration. It can lead to permanent visual loss.
• A cataract is one such disease that eye practitioner finds often in their routine eye check-ups. A cataract is an ocular condition in which the Crystalline lens found in your eyes becomes cloudy and it leads to a blurry vision for the patient. A proper check-up, identification, and lens replacement surgery are essential to restore vision.
• Health Conditions such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Thyroid, etc. are essential to take an annual eye health examination. Ocular problems can occur from these conditions.

What is included in the eye examination: -

Preliminary Examination

This includes your pupillary reactions, color vision, eye movements, and visual field.

Visual acuity

It measures the smallest letter an individual can see in the visual acuity chart. 20/20 or 6/6 visual acuity is considered normal in standard clinical practice.

Any reduction from this might need a refractive correction. For near vision a near visual acuity is tested from the near chart, N6 value on that chart is considered to be the visual acuity of a normal individual.

Slit–Lamp Examination

This instrument gives a magnified view of different structures of the eye such as the cornea, iris, lens, tear ducts, lacrimal glands, etc. area surrounding the eye such as eyelids can also be examined and infection and abnormalities in structures can find out.

Intra-Ocular Pressure (I.O.P.)

It is usually done by the instrument tonometer. It helps in evaluating eye conditions including glaucoma and corneal disease.

A Retinal Examination

The examiner checks the vessels and the surrounding area of the retina to know the health status of the retina.