Eye Technology

Optical coherence tomography – or OCT – is a medical imaging technique. It uses visible light to produce a 3-D image of what’s happening beneath the surface.

MRI, CT-scans and X-rays use radiation for this. But this can pose health risks, especially if repeated. OCT is safe to use as often as you like without risk to the eye’s delicate tissues. It also provides much higher resolution.

Some eye disorders are not visible with the naked eye. Indeed, the normal retinal image or photograph that happens in an eye examination does not show what’s happening under the surface. To see what’s really going on, we use OCT. It allows us to image the underlying layers of the eye in a non-invasive way.

This is invaluable for picking up problems with the retina and macula as well as diagnosing and monitoring the progress of progressive diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration.

Our state-of-the-art Digital Retinal Imaging allows us to take a high-resolution image of the back of your eye using a highly magnified digital camera system. This allows a more detailed and wider-angled view than would normally be achieved with conventional observation methods.

It shows detailed images of the internal eye structures and it can show abnormalities that may threaten vision. It greatly aids in the ability to accurately diagnose and document many diseases as well as providing a baseline for comparison with previous and future visits.

It is a permanent clinical record to closely monitor even the slightest progression or abnormality, so the subtle, early signs of an eye condition, can be captured.

The discovery of reduced peripheral vision (or a blind-spot) in the visual field is critical in diagnosing and managing both glaucoma and neurological conditions that affect the optic nerves of the eye and the vision processing areas in the brain. In the early stages of glaucoma, you are highly unlikely to be aware that you are developing the condition as the brain fills in the gaps and holes with its best guess as to what should be there, leaving you none the wiser.

By enabling the earliest detection of visual field defects, this highly detailed assessment method improves the success of treatment of this silent thief of sight to prevent eyesight loss. Visual fields testing is also valuable for detecting neurologically related vision changes due to stroke, lesions or tumours.

We perform a visual field screening assessment on every adult patient. More detailed tests can be used if indicated following your screening. This is because we believe that an eye test is not just about reading a letter chart, which only accounts for the central 2% of our vision. The other 98% of your vision is just as important.

This computer-controlled machine is used during your eye examination to provide an objective measurement as a starting point for assessing your refractive error for glasses or contact lenses.

The auto-refractor achieves this by measuring how light is processed and changed as it enters your eye.

Using the latest instrumentation, unmatched for accuracy, we use this data to help us ensure your eyewear and contact lenses perform their best.

Our state-of-the-art digital lens correction system makes your experience in finding out what glasses you need easier, quicker and more accurate.

The instantaneous lens changes as we make our assessment make those “one or two” lens choices so much easier for you!

The result is a more relaxed experience for you and a more accurate glasses power assessment.

The corneal topographer uses more than 10,000 data points to digitally map the shape of your cornea (the clear front cover of your eye). This technology provides our optometrists at Visique Hutt Valley with a computer-generated three-dimensional representation of your eye.

With this information in hand, the contact lenses most suitable for you can be prescribed and ordered for you with much higher accuracy than without these scans. This enables our specialist Optometrists to ensure that your contact lenses fit comfortably and provide you with the clearest vision possible.

Corneal topography is also used extensively for our very popular Ortho K, and to assess the eye surface following LASIK eye surgery. We also use this to monitor degenerative diseases of the cornea such as keratoconus, and to be able to monitor and manage patients that have had corneal transplants.

This uses internal reflection within the cornea to measure the corneal thickness using non-contact light reflection.

We use this to assess the thickness of your cornea as part of assessing whether you may have, or be at risk of, glaucoma due to thinner corneas.

We also use it to assess how much corneal thickness remains following laser eye surgery, and for assessing corneal diseases such as keratoconus.

We discuss our findings with you and make an expert recommendation tailored to your eye health needs.

In some situations, an eye disease might be diagnosed. Even though this is a scary time, it is still best to get this information as early as possible. The key here is eye disease management.

Over many years in managing eye diseases we have aligned ourselves with world-leading ophthalmologists, whom we trust with our family members.