Visit Mt. View EyeCare for Your Eye Exam Needs

Mt. View EyeCare proudly serves the people of Vancouver, WA and the surrounding area.

Committed to preserving optimal vision for its patients and the public, the staff at Mt. View is extensively trained, experienced and up to the task. From wellness exams to medication screenings to acute eye care, our sole mission is to preserve, protect, and improve your vision. In so doing, helping to enhance the quality of your life.

What Happens During an Eye Exam?

Our eye doctors and staff must evaluate the eyes thoroughly to fully understand the health of your vision. Here’s an overview of some of the procedures you might experience during a routine eye exam.

• VISUAL ACUITY: Most everyone knows the eye chart hanging on the wall with letters both large and small. This tool helps the doctor measure the precision or sharpness of a patient’s vision.
• COLOR BLINDNESS: Often, patients are given circular patterns–made up of individual dots of differing shades–from which to discern an image, letter or number. The image is embedded in the pattern of a distinct hue. If the patient can consistently pick out the image with no issues, color blindness is effectively ruled out.
• DILATION: Depending on a patient’s medical condition, the eye doctor may choose to dilate the pupils, causing them to widen and let more light in. This helps to better diagnose any of the above disorders. Opting for dilation is conditioned on a number of risk factors.
• OCULAR MOTILITY: Keeping the head still, the optometrist might ask the patient to follow a moving light with his or her eyes. If the movement is not smooth, this may be a sign of eye strain, having consequences for reading, sports and manual tasks.
• DEPTH PERCEPTION: Stereopsis is a test that gives indication of the extent of a patient’s depth perception. Some doctors employ three-dimensional glasses and a set of patterns that simulate distance to make this determination.

Is My First Eye Exam Visit Any Different?

The less an optometrist knows about your visual and general health, the more in-depth the examination. A documented patient history helps the doctor to be on guard for specific conditions or medications that impact vision and your overall health. The more information you bring, the better–glasses and/or contact prescriptions, records of past eye procedures, etc.

Routine and Special Reasons for Eye Exams

• NEAR-/FARSIGHTEDNESS: Poor vision can adversely affect performance at work and school, driving on the road and operating power machinery. Fortunately, in most instances this is easily remedied with corrective lenses. An eye examination can determine what the optimal magnification should be so the glasses or contact lenses restore vision to ideal competence. Since eyes can change over time, return visits are advisable.
• AGING: Nothing on this earth lasts forever and people are no exception. As we age, we need more light to see, have greater difficulty discerning colors one from another. Focusing up close also calls for more effort. These are normal changes that often come after the 40th birthday; no reason to be alarmed but get the eyes checked at any rate.
• MACULAR DEGENERATION: Nevertheless, age-related issues can also bring on problems of concern. The older we get, the greater the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition responsible for the visual impairment of nearly 11 million people in the United States. AMD occurs when the center of the retina—the macula—begins to degrade, thereby affecting central vision, color distinction and discernment of fine detail. There are several treatments available ranging from nutritional changes and medication to laser therapy and injections. First, an exam is in order to determine the extent and kind of degeneration.
• DIABETES: Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to a host of eye diseases, like retinopathy (see above), macular edema, cataracts and glaucoma. Any and all of these can bring on visual impairment or blindness. Diabetic macular edema (DME), to name one, involves swelling in the macula due to fluid from leaking blood vessels. While there are preliminary symptoms like floaters, double vision and blurriness, complete loss of sight can occur suddenly if eyes are not checked annually.
• GLAUCOMA: Glaucoma affects the optic nerve that connects the eye to the brain. It can result from abnormal pressure inside the eye. Vision loss from glaucoma is preventable with early detection, making regular eye exams essential.
• CATARACT: Each eye has a lens that acts much like a camera lens, i.e. it focuses light and images onto the retina. As people age, protein can bunch up at a point on the lens and obstruct visual images. That aggregation is a cataract. The cataract grows larger if not addressed. Furthermore, diabetes and smoking hasten the growth of cataracts.
• WELLNESS: An eye exam is, first and foremost, a medical exam. The eyes are integrated components of the human body; their problems influence and reflect the overall physiology. For example, retinopathy, or disturbance of the eye’s blood supply, can be symptomatic of hypertension. Blood clots or air bubbles detected in eyes are sometimes signs of plaque build-up in the carotid artery or the heart. A thorough vision exam can reveal much about overall health and wellness.

Annual Wellness Eye Exams

For patients who are interested in maintaining their general eye health and updating their glasses prescriptions. We recommend annual examinations for all patients, even if you feel like your vision hasn’t changed. At these appointments you’ll often be able to hear new updates in technology or more importantly make sure that your eyes continue to remain healthy.

Many conditions are found when we see changes in the eye. These are often easiest to detect earlier when patients are seen more frequently. Glaucoma is a great example of conditions that are slow progressing early on, but can cause vision loss if not monitored closely.

If you’re a new patient, our policy is typically to dilate all new patients the first time they are seen within our clinic, then on a case by case basis afterwards.