What Does An Optometrist Do?

Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development.

With many children suffering from undetected vision problems, it’s important to be aware of the possible signs of a vision problem to give every child the best chance of reaching their full potential. When it comes to formative and intellectual development, maintaining good children’s eye health is essential.

While other senses play an important role too, for children, the eyes are conducive to socialising, reading emotions, and language development.

Having your children’s eyes tested before they begin school may prevent developmental difficulties resulting from impaired vision. By having their eyes tested by an optometrist regularly in the absence of symptoms, you can catch difficulties at their earliest stages.

Gulf and Ranges now have a Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) credentialed optometrist who is trained in providing a full examination for pilots, air traffic controllers, flight engineers and others in the aviation industry.

The examination includes tests that are specific to aviation. We suggest that the person booked for this test brings another person as a driver as part of this test includes dilating their pupils, so vision will be blurry and they may be sensitive to light for a few hours.

Information that needs to be brought to the test are:

• Photo ID
• Aviation Reference Number
• All glasses and/or contact lenses that are used when flying (includes sunglasses)
• Any relevant medical and ocular documents

The results will be submitted directly to CASA on the day of the appointment.

Book your test now.

Behavioural optometry is focused on preventing vision and eye problems from developing, or deteriorating, and provides treatment for vision problems that have already developed (eg: eye turn, shortsightedness).

This field of optometry ensures visual abilities needed in the classroom, work place, when playing sport and using computers, have developed normally and are working well.

Behavioural optometrists specialise in vision – the way you interpret what you see – they assess your vision processing skills and ensure vision development in children is progressing as it should and not affecting their ability to learn.

The health of the retina is very dependent on a good blood supply to the eye. Diabetes compromises blood circulation and can cause serious damage to the retina (diabetic retinopathy).

Regular eye tests, when diagnosed with diabetes, will reduce the affects to eye health and vision. It is critical for those with diabetes to have regular checks (3, 6, 9, 12 or 18 months depending on the progression of the disease).

The disease, if unmanaged can cause huge changes with focusing, but more devastatingly can cause damage to the blood flow in the retina leading to bleeding, vision loss and a high risk of the retina being detached.

Retinal digital photography is used by the optometrist to examine changes in the vessels in the retina and allows some retinal issues to monitored more effectively.

Wide Field Retinal Photography is a non-invasive test that takes an ultra-wide picture of your retina. Images can be compared side by side over time to monitor your eye health and detect any changes that may be occurring over time.

These images are used in combination with an OCT scan to give optometrists the ability to detect macula degeneration, glaucoma and retinal tears

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive test that takes a high resolution picture of the central retina and its blood supply.

An OCT picture gives your optometrist the ability to detect problems in the eye prior to any symptoms being present.

It used to gather baseline data and detect and support the management of eye diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma and retinal detachments.

Corneal Topography is non-invasive imaging that measures the curve of the front of the eye, the cornea and the overlying tear film.

It creates a three dimensional map of the surface curvature of the cornea which helps with the diagnosis of diseases like keratoconus.

These details assist with the correct fitting of contact lenses, especially the more advanced contact lens options.

A visual field test is non-invasive imaging that takes around 15 minutes.

The test creates a picture of what you are able to detect visually in your central and peripheral vision (side vision).

This test can detect eye disease such as glaucoma and closely monitor it’s progression or identify if vision loss is a result of neurological events.

The slit lamp examination is like looking into your eyes through a powerful microscope.

The instrument used is called a biomicroscope and it shines a thin sheet of high intensity light into your eye so your optometrist can get a close look at the internal structure of your eye.

The eyelids, cornea, iris, conjunctiva, retina, optic nerve and macula are among the things that can be seen with a biomicroscope, and cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease and corneal ulcers can all be detected using this test.

A contact lens is a thin lens placed directly on the surface of the eye.

Contact lenses have come a long way from being uncomfortable and drying. New lenses are released on the market continually, designed to provide more comfort and clarity to the wearer.

When you have a contact lens fitting with any one of our optometrists, we can choose from a selection of brands, materials, sizes, designs (multi-focal, mono-vision, single vision) and wear types (daily, fortnightly and monthly).

This choice means we can provide what is best for ‘your’ eyes.

Our comprehensive range of highest quality prescription safety eyewear meets Australian Standards for safety and work environments.

You may also be interested in safety eyewear for sports and leisure activities like AFL and basketball, or high velocity small projectile sports like squash.

Our team of optometrists are highly trained and experienced in dealing with ocular emergencies, including trauma, foreign bodies, sudden vision loss, red, sore or painful eyes.

Most emergencies can be treated at the Practice, however those that cannot be treated onsite will be diagnosed and your optometrist will liaise with the right care team for your problem.

If your eyes or vision are involved, please make sure that you see us as soon as possible, earlier diagnosis and treatment generally makes a big difference.

Our optometrists have extensive experience in managing follow up care after eye surgeries such as cataract surgery, pterygium removal and glaucoma surgeries.

Your care is done by our optometrists on behalf of your ophthalmologist as part of the after-surgery care process. Ophthalmologists refer patients to optometrists for their clinical expertise with range of conditions.

Our optometrists are often involved in the ongoing co-management for patients that have macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetes or corneal issues, and work closely with local GP’s, pharmacists, nursing homes and the RFDS in the care of people in our community.