Good treatment is downstream of good measurement. The office is equipped so that decisions — is this glaucoma progressing, are these glands dying, is this cornea steepening — are made by looking directly at the structure in question.
OCT: cross-sections of the retina and optic nerve — glaucoma, macular edema, AMD
Visual field testing: where peripheral vision is quietly thinning
Retinal photography: a baseline your future visits are compared against
Tonometry and pachymetry: pressure, and the corneal thickness that calibrates it
Corneal topography and tomography: the shape maps that stage keratoconus
Meibography: the structure of your eyelid oil glands
Scleral profilometry: the contour map a free-form scleral lens is designed from
Why baselines matter
Most eye disease is a story told in change. The first round of imaging is the chapter everything else gets compared to — which is why our optometrists in Los Angeles image before they treat.
No — they are light-based imaging and measurement. Dilation drops sting briefly and blur near vision for a few hours.
Glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and early AMD are famously silent. Imaging catches them while treatment still protects vision.
Medically indicated testing is typically billed to medical insurance; we verify benefits when we book you.
A visual field test maps how much you can see to the sides, and in the center, while you look straight ahead. You keep your eye still on a central target while lights appear in different spots, and the test finds the dimmest light you can detect at each location, so missing some faint lights is normal. The map shows where side vision has been lost, which is how it helps detect glaucoma damage and track it over time. Glaucoma usually takes side vision first, and many people are unaware of it until the loss is significant, so the test can catch loss you haven't noticed.
Usually a few minutes per eye. In a five-center study of 126 people with glaucoma or suspected glaucoma, three versions of an automated threshold test averaged about 3, 4 and 6 minutes per eye, with only small differences in results between the quickest and the longest. Your first test becomes the baseline that later tests are compared with, since most eye disease shows itself as change over time.
Also consider
Next step
See what we can see.
Book a comprehensive exam with imaging, and keep a baseline worth comparing against.
