During your eye examination

The aim of an eye examination is to check:

• if you would benefit from wearing glasses or contact lenses
• the health of your eyes
• for signs of other health problems

During your eye examination you can expect the optometrist to ask a lot of questions about your general health, lifestyle, the quality of your vision and any glasses you wear. This is called "taking a history". These questions and the answers you give are very important. The eye examination should then include:

• A test of your level of eyesight - you will be asked to read letters on a chart or to match symbols.
• Checks of the outer eye to confirm it is healthy.
• A test to check your eyes react to light as they should.
• Checks on the health inside the eye - a light will be shone into your eye, and you will be asked to look in different directions.
• A test to confirm the muscles that control eye movements are working well.
• Tests to work out if you need to wear glasses and what prescription is needed.

You should also have an eye pressure test if you:

• are over 40
• are over 25 and of African-Caribbean origin
• have a close relative with glaucoma
• are diabetic

There are several tests for this, but the most common one involves puffs of air blown at the front of each eye. It does not hurt but will probably make you jump.

If the optometrist feels it’s appropriate, they may also carry out a field of vision test – to check your side (peripheral) vision.

As well as assessing whether you would benefit from wearing glasses or contact lenses, your optometrist will also check the overall health of your eyes during your routine eye examination. Some optometrists may offer some additional tests such as retinal photographs and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). These extra tests are not essential but add further peace of mind and provide a useful baseline of information for future tests.

These additional tests are not usually covered by the NHS, so there is usually an extra charge for them. If you are offered additional tests, you may wish to ask the optometrist:

• how will these extra tests benefit me. and why are they being recommended?
• is there something the optometrist is concerned about?
• what do these extra tests show?
• how much are these extra tests?

At the end of the test, the optometrist should:

• explain the results of your examination
• tell you if you have a new or changed glasses prescription and whether you need new glasses.
• tell you whether your eyes are healthy
• explain anything you need to do next to keep your eyes healthy or whether you need to see another specialist, such as an ophthalmologist (hospital eye doctor) or another optometrist.

You can ask your optometrist any questions you have about your eye test or results.

See our page on ‘After your eye examination’ to find out what happens next.