Private: Eyeglasses in Calgary
Luckily for you, the professionals at our Calgary optometry practice are here to guide you every step of the way – from the initial exam to finding the perfect frame!
How Do You Know It’s Time To Get Glasses in Calgary?
It’s normal for our eyesight to change with age, but when it becomes a problem, it’s time to stop and think about whether it’s time to invest in a pair of eyeglasses. After all, eyesight is something you need and use in your daily life, without giving it a second thought.
Let’s change that today. Here’s a list of symptoms to keep an eye on:
- Blurred vision at any given distance
- Double vision
- Things seem a bit hazy
- Frequent squinting
- Eye fatigue, strain, and irritation
- Seeing halos around bright lights
- Trouble seeing at night
If you or someone you know started experiencing some of these symptoms, book an eye exam at our Calgary optometry practice today!
It All Starts With An Eye Exam
Regardless of your age, there’s a similar protocol all comprehensive eyeglass exams follow, so if you or your optometrist decide you’re long overdue for one, here’s a complete list of tests you can expect during your appointment:
- Visual Acuity Test – You’re undoubtedly familiar with this one, given the fact that it’s a part of every vision screening you’ve ever had. Looking at the Snellen chart, you’ll be asked to identify the letters printed on it – the catch is that they get smaller as you move along.
- Color Blindness Test – It is entirely possible to have color vision deficiency without realizing it, which is why color vision screening is performed at an early stage of a comprehensive eye exam. That way, your doctor can rule out color blindness.
- Eye Muscle (Ocular Motility) Test – To evaluate the muscles that control your eye movements, your doctor will check smooth eye movements – following a moving object with your eyes, as well as saccades (quick eye movements) – moving your eyes between two separate targets.
- Refraction Assessment – Before you can start looking for eyeglasses, your doctor needs to check if you do, in fact, have a refractive error. This assessment helps estimate your lens prescription, as well.
- Visual Field Test Calgary – Also known as perimetry, visual field test is there to detect any areas in your field of vision that might be compromised. Confrontation exam is the most common form of visual field testing, but automated perimetry and tangent screen exam are performed, as well.
- Slit Lamp Exam – Using an intense line of light, and under high magnification, your doctor will inspect the outer, as well as inner structures of your eyes.
The slit lamp exam is a crucial step in detecting a wide range of conditions, including cataracts, which affects nearly 20.5 million adults in the U.S. alone.
- Retinal Examination – Your doctor will also need to take a closer look at your eye’s internal structures, including the retina, the blood vessels that nourish it, and the optic disc, either by direct or indirect examination. For that, you’ll have to get your pupils dilated.
- Screening For Glaucoma – Since glaucoma typically doesn’t have any early warning signs, it’s vital for routine eye exams to include tonometry, be it applanation or non-contact tonometry. The goal is to measure intraocular pressure and detect any abnormalities.
Why Do You Need Our Calgary Eye Glasses?
You know they’ll help you see better, but do you know why you need them?
To better understand how vision correction works, you need to know why eyesight impairment occurs in the first place.
When a person with perfect eyesight looks at something, the scattered light merges, and enters their eyes, focusing on the retina. At the same time, thanks to the lens and the cornea, the image shrinks and curves, so it matches the retina both in size, as well as shape. That’s the ideal case.
When these eye structures are not able to perform their jobs right, you’ll experience one of the following three common vision problems:
- Nearsightedness (Myopia) – As the name suggests, people suffering from it are unable to see objects that are distant clearly, since images come into focus before reaching the retina.
- Farsightedness (Hyperopia) – Alternatively, when the image comes into focus behind the retina, close objects appear out of focus.
- Astigmatism – Irregular cornea or lens shape creates the second focal point inside the eye, resulting in blurred vision at any given distance.
From there on, the solution sounds rather simple – all there is to do is redirect the light, so it hits your retina correctly. That’s where framed eyeglasses come to play!
Additional Tips For Finding The Perfect Pair Of Glasses in Calgary
If you’re going to be wearing your glasses every day, the least you can do is find a frame that suits you perfectly, right? The good news is you don’t have to be an expert to do that – just follow these three simple tips: play!
- Finding the right frame for your face shape is the first and most important thing you should do. There are a lot of guides that can help you with that but remember you get the final vote. You can’t go wrong with a pair that makes you feel unique and confident.
- Black frame is a classic, ideal for highlighting your eyes, but that doesn’t mean you should be afraid of colors. It’s okay to step out of your comfort zone from time to time. That said, you need to take your skin tone into account, the same way you did your face shape. Cool complexions love gray, silver, purple, blue, even pink and the almighty black, while golden shades, browns, olive green and light tortoise compliment warm skin tones.
- Lastly, make sure they’re in proportion with your face. Too small of a frame, and it might alter your vision or compromise the effectiveness of your glasses; too big, and they’ll „swallow“ your face. The goal here is to find the middle ground, and our Calgary optometrists can help with that, too.
Let Us Help You
Whether you decided it’s time to get a new pair, or your most recent eye exam revealed you’ll need vision correction, our eyeglasses Calgary options are an excellent place to start. Don’t be a stranger, and come by our Calgary optometry practice – we promise to handpick a pair just for you!