Contact Lens Exams In Tulsa
When you’re ready to move from eyeglasses to contact lenses, a thorough eye exam is the first step. At Harrel Eyecare, our Tulsa optometrists are dedicated to caring for your complete eye health, not just finding the right prescription for your new pair of contacts. At our office, a contact lens exam begins with a thorough eye examination before moving on to finding the right size and shape of lens for your eyes.
What to Expect During a Contact Lens Exam
All eye examinations begin with vision testing, using the familiar eye chart with rows of letters. Our doctors will have you look through a machine, known as a phoropter, to determine exactly what prescription strength you need to correct your vision. You’ll be asked to choose between a number of pairs of lenses, narrowing down which of each two gives the clearer vision.
We’ll perform several tests to check the way your eyes perform. Our doctor will test your eyes’ depth perception and peripheral vision, will check for color blindness and will look for the strength of your eye muscles. We’ll also check to find out how well your eyes work together as a pair, as well as independently.
Once our doctor has determined the amount of vision correction you need, he’ll check for overall eye health. He can diagnose a number of eye diseases by doing a simple examination or two, including:
- Cataracts
- Glaucoma
- Macular degeneration
- Diabetic retinopathy
We’ll put drops in your eyes to dilate your pupils, which allow our doctor to see inside your eye easier. The test consist of puffs of air being blown at the eye, lights shining in the eye and moving around, and close viewing of the inside of your eyeball. None of these tests will hurt, and they take just a few minutes.
Once the eye health part of the exam is over, our doctor will measure your eyes for contact lenses. We’ll need to know the width and height of your eyeball, as well as the curvature of the front of the eye. This allows us to create the right size and shape of lens that will lay perfectly flat on your eye without tending to pop out when you blink.
Consulting With Our Tulsa Doctor About Contact Lens Choices
After the examination is over, you’ll sit down with the doctor to decide which types of contact lenses are for you. We offer a large variety of contact lens styles, so we’re confident we’ll find the exact type to fit with your lifestyle. Some of the more popular lens styles are:
- Soft contact lenses that you remove and clean every night
- Daily lenses that you throw away at the end of the day, putting in a new pair every morning
- Rigid gas permeable lenses
- Specialty lenses for astigmatism, keratoconus and other rare needs
- Colored lenses
If you have any other questions about contact lens exams, or to schedule an appointment, call Harrel Eyecare in Tulsa at (918) 745-9662 today.