Eye health resource
What to Expect from a Comprehensive Eye Examination
A comprehensive eye exam checks more than whether you need glasses. Learn how Park Slope Eye evaluates your history, vision and prescription, eye coordination, front-of-eye health, retina and optic nerve, and when imaging or dilation may be useful.
Reviewed for accuracy by Justin Bazan, OD on .
A comprehensive eye exam checks both how well you see and the health of your eyes. The exact tests are not identical for every patient. Your age, symptoms, medical history, prescription, contact-lens use, family history, and examination findings determine what additional testing is useful.
We Start With Your History and What You Need From Your Vision
Before testing, we want to know why you are here. That includes changes in distance or near vision, headaches, dryness, flashes or floaters, contact-lens comfort, night-driving difficulty, family eye history, medical conditions, medications, prior surgery or injury, and how you use your eyes at work and at home.
This context matters because the same measured prescription can affect two people differently depending on their visual demands and eye health.
Visual Acuity: How Clearly Can You See?
Visual-acuity testing measures how clearly each eye can resolve detail at distance and, when appropriate, at near. The familiar “20/20” measurement is part of the exam, but it is not a complete description of eye health or visual function.
A person can read 20/20 and still have dry eye, glaucoma, retinal disease, focusing problems, or another condition that deserves attention.
Refraction: Finding Your Best Eyeglass Prescription
Refraction is the part of the examination used to determine the eyeglass prescription. Park Slope Eye uses a Topcon Chronos system that combines automated binocular measurements with the doctor's subjective refinement of the prescription.
The benefit is not simply that the machine is automated. It gives the doctor an efficient starting point while still allowing you to compare lens choices and participate in the final prescription. The goal is the prescription that gives you useful, comfortable vision — not merely a number produced by a device.
Refraction is separate from the medical eye-health portion of an examination and may have a separate fee depending on your benefits. Current self-pay and insurance information is on our Insurance, Fees & FAQs page.
Eye Alignment, Movements, Pupils, and Focusing
Depending on your age and symptoms, the doctor may evaluate how the eyes align and move together, how the pupils respond to light, focusing function, and other binocular-vision findings.
Additional testing is chosen when symptoms or examination findings suggest it would add useful information rather than being performed automatically on everyone.
Examining the Front of the Eye
A slit-lamp microscope allows the doctor to examine structures such as the eyelids, lashes, tear film, conjunctiva, cornea, iris, and lens at high magnification.
This part of the examination can reveal findings associated with dry eye, blepharitis, allergy, contact-lens complications, corneal disease, inflammation, cataract, and other conditions.
Retinal Imaging: A Wide-Angle Photograph of the Back of the Eye
Park Slope Eye uses Optos Daytona wide-angle retinal imaging. The test takes a high-resolution photograph of much of the retina in seconds without touching the eye.
Nearly all of our patients choose retinal imaging. In routine practice, it very often gives us the retinal view and documentation we need without using dilating drops, while also creating an image that can be compared with future visits.
Imaging does not make dilation obsolete. If symptoms, risk factors, or examination findings make a dilated view clinically necessary, we still recommend dilation and explain why.
What Is OCT, and Does Everyone Need It?
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a quick, non-contact scan that creates detailed cross-sectional images of the retina and optic nerve. Park Slope Eye uses a Topcon Maestro OCT when that additional structural information is useful.
OCT can help the doctor look for or monitor structural changes associated with conditions such as glaucoma and macular disease. It does not diagnose those conditions by itself, and not every routine patient needs an OCT scan.
Will I Be Dilated?
Not automatically. Wide-angle retinal imaging often provides useful retinal documentation without routine dilation, but dilation may still be recommended for new flashes or floaters, certain retinal concerns, significant risk factors, unexplained vision changes, or other findings where a wider or more detailed internal view is important.
If dilation is recommended, we explain the reason before proceeding.
What Happens If We Find an Eye-Health Problem?
A routine vision visit can sometimes reveal a medical eye condition. Depending on the finding, the next step may be monitoring, additional testing, treatment at Park Slope Eye, follow-up under medical insurance, or referral to an ophthalmologist or another specialist.
Medical and vision benefits are not interchangeable in every situation. Which coverage applies depends on the reason for the visit, services performed, and the rules of your plans.
How Often Should You Have a Comprehensive Eye Exam?
There is no single interval that fits every patient. Current American Optometric Association guidance is not perfectly uniform for asymptomatic, low-risk adults: its 2023 adult clinical practice guideline supports annual comprehensive examinations for ages 18 through 64, while its current public frequency table lists at least every two years for asymptomatic, low-risk adults ages 18 through 64 and annual examinations beginning at age 65.
In practice, contact-lens wear, diabetes, hypertension, eye disease, high or changing prescriptions, medications, prior surgery or injury, family history, previous abnormal findings, and new symptoms can justify annual or more frequent care. Your doctor can recommend an interval based on your individual risk.
For low-risk children, current AOA guidance includes a comprehensive assessment at 6 to 12 months, at least one exam between ages 3 and 5, and an exam before first grade with annual examinations thereafter.
Your Prescription Is Yours
When a refraction is performed, we provide your eyeglass prescription and can email it to you. You do not have to purchase eyewear from Park Slope Eye to receive it.
We are happy to provide a quote because our optical often offers very competitive pricing and eyewear sales help support an independent practice, but the choice of where to purchase remains yours.
If you are due for a comprehensive eye exam, book an appointment online.
Originally published . Substantially updated .