I don’t have to be dilated?

Optomap Imaging: retinal evaluations without dilation!

Ever wonder why your eye doctor asks to dilate your eyes? And what are those drops that make your pupils so big? Is there any way around dilation?

The purpose of dilation is to ensure that the inner structures of your eyes are healthy and in good working order. Dilation is an important component of a comprehensive eye exam and is a necessary step in the complete evaluation of your eye health.

As you’re likely aware, your pupils automatically shrink down when bright lights are shone into your eyes. Bright lights are needed, though, to take a look into the dark spaces within the eye and, unfortunately, this automatic reflex makes it difficult to do so. Thus, pharmaceutical drops are used to relax the muscles within the eye and dilate, or enlarge, the pupil so that your physician can take an unobstructed look inside your eyes.

At myoptic, we strive to ensure your eyes are looking great both inside and out. That is why we’ve invested in the latest in digital retinal imaging technology and offer the optomap as a service to help us evaluate your internal eye health. The best part? It doesn’t require dilation.

In a fraction of a second, the optomap captures a high-definition image of the inner lining of the eye, the retina, and allows us to see up to 80% of the retina compared to the 15% obtained by a traditional retinal camera.

With these images, your optometric physician can check for a number of eye conditions including glaucoma, macular degeneration, and retinal tears or detachments. Even chronic health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressures, and high cholesterol can be monitored with this state-of-the-art technology.

The optomap is a quick and effective way to screen retinal health without dilation. If everything looks healthy you may not need to be dilated at all during your office visit! However, if there are any concerning eye conditions seen in the images your physician may still want to perform a dilation for further evaluation.

So cool!!

If you’re interested in checking out this awesome technology or have any questions, just mention the optomap at your next eye exam!