I switched optometry clinics a few years ago, and that was the first time I was given the retinal imaging option. I’d hesitated paying for it (around $40) but it was so nice leaving the clinic with my eyes normal.
I would not hesitate for $40. Waiting for my eyes to go back to normal sucks
I only hesitated the first time. I’d had bad experience at the previous clinic when it took a long time to wear off and my eyes were so dilated it was sketchy driving home.
The internets tell me this takes 4 to 24 hours to go back to normal. Hopefully im on the shorter end of that. People with light eyes take the longest. My eyes are close to black though like my soul.
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Huh, I’ve had my eyes dilated a number of times, but not for probably at least a decade. I’ve never been given the option to pay extra to not have them dilated. The optometrist bought the new machine and stopped dilating my eyes!
@ao_fan, glad you found a provider you like.
would be nice if he would get that fancy machine though. i didn’t know that was an option. eye dilation sucks.
I’ve never had an optometrist dilate my eyes. I’ve have ophthalmologists dilate my eyes pretty often, though.
You don’t need to dilate the eyes to fit lenses. In fact, you get a better reading if you don’t (or if you test vision first.) But dilation gives them a better view of the inside of the eye and they can check for how healthy the retina is and stuff.
he did the vision test prior to dilating my eyes obviously.
i was there for a really long time to get it right.
I’ve had ophthalmologists check my vision after dilating my eyes. I used to avoid them for getting a new prescription for that reason.
My current one did two separate appointments. I guess I’d seen her recently because i had some stuff going on, so she didn’t feel the need to dilate my eyes when checking my vision. She’d just looked into my eyes about a month earlier.
that’s really strange. the stuff that dilated my eyes made my vision blurry. i don’t see how you could get a correct reading on your vision for glasses or contacts doing it in that order. dilating your eyes isn’t for a vision corrective prescription. it’s to check for health related issues in your eyes.
those ophthalmologists sound incompetent.
I get mine dilated every year due to family history of glaucoma. Not sure why people freak out. I love it. Used to get it done in winter and late in the day so driving home was so cool with all the headlights and street lights. I hate visiting the ophthalmologist but I love the dilation part.
Now let’s talk about the field of vision test. That is pure torture.
what does “sulfate” your eyes mean? is that the same as dilate?
really? my eyes after felt tired and uncomfortable and weird, and my vision was blurry. not fun. now i’m sitting in the dark and it’s slowly recovering.
Sort of. It was a typo for dilate. I’m about to fix it.
it doesn’t make your vision blurry, it fixes your focal length to one spot, so you can’t adjust it to what you are looking for. And it opens the iris so light comes in through more area, and you don’t get the help of “pinhole” focusing.
Anyway, I got okay corrective lenses from the ophthalmologists who did it in that order. But I’ve always gotten better corrective lenses from people who didn’t dilate my eyes. Ideally you want glasses that work with your eyes, not just ones that mechanically correct it from X to Y.
What’s that? Is that when they have you look this way and that way? I thought that was to see all of the retina better. But I guess I never asked.
i have no idea what this means. i felt extremely uncomfortable and like my eyes were tired and i didn’t think i saw as well. when i was outside in the sun it was torture.
You won’t see as well because you can’t change your focus from near to far, the muscles that do that are frozen in place. And especially if your eyes are very different (which it sounds like they are) you lose the benefit of using both eyes together. But they can still tell where each eye DOES focus, and they can still put lenses in front of your eyes to change that focus, and determine which one makes “far away” clear.
But they should have given you sunglasses to cope with the “being outside in bright light” thing.
A field of vision test involves patching one eye at a time and staring into a hooded machine with a light in the center. You are handed a clicker device that you need to click each time you see a pin prick of light. The location and intensity of each flash varies and the test for each eye can last up to 5 minutes. You start to see things that aren’t there, you become afraid to blink in case you miss a flash, the ability to focus on the center of the screen causes the ambient light to increase and decrease during the test. The purpose is to find blind spots in your vision. In general, it is a nerve wracking experience but no pain is involved, just general discomfort for the 10 minutes the test takes.
-1.75 in the right eye and -4.25 in the left for far away distance.
-3.00 in the left eye and no correction at all in the right for piano stand music. Not sure if the whole being old thing makes it so i need different corrective lenses for a little distance vs far away distance. I feel like when i was younger the correction for far away worked the same for all distances. Now it doesnt.
Close to needing reading glasses on my right and my left is perfect at a reading distance. Its weird
But yes all that makes for torture while dilated. Confused how they could assess your vision for glasses while dilated but ill take your word for it. Is there any actual benefit of dilating you first for a doctor to choose this?