A Safer Way to Check the Retina - The Optomap Retinal Exam - By: AdamDouglas

Traditionally when we receive retina checks, the eye doctor will dilate the pupil, which would probably leave some aftereffects for the patients. And some people whose eyes are sensitive to light would often refuse to under such a dilation to get retina checked. Then what should the eye doctor do to those patients? The Optomap Retinal Exam is here help to solve such a problem for them. It is an exam what is able to provide an overview, up to 80%, of the retina, the back of the patient's eye. The working principle of Optomap lies in the usage of different wavelengths of laser light, for they allow different layers of the retina to be evaluated.

Compared with the traditional way of pupil dilation, Optomap retinal exam provides no discomfort to the patient, for the images taken are resulted from brief flash, and the patients, even the light sensitive ones, will not object to it; Optomap retinal exam presents a wider view of the retina, allowing the doctors more probably to do further investigations. Traditionally, when the doctors need to get a wider view to get some further exams, they have to dilate the patient's eyes for 4 to 6 hours. It, on one hand, is a rather painful progress for the patients; on the other hand, they patients would experience a temporary blurred vision.

Of course, pupil dilation bears its own advantages. The biggest one is that by using an instrument that is worn on the doctor's head called a binocular indirect ophthalmoscope(BIO) and asking the patient to look in different directions, a 3D(stereo view) fundus can be viewed. A good retinal camera will allow the examiner to see about 30% of the back of a patient's eye at one time. By taking numerous images and piecing them together up to 60% of the fundus is viewable with a retinal camera.

Because of the respective comparative advantages of the two methods, one should select the proper one according to his/her own eye condition. Generally speaking, Optomap is for everyone, but the most recommended ones are those who can't or don't want to be dilated, children, anyone with a history of retinal problems and people that are light sensitive. It should be a wise choice if one get his/her retina checked once a year, because it will effectively discover the potential pathological changes and prevent its further development.

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