Contact your optometrist right away if you experience: The blood vessels may leak fluid or blood, scarring the macula. Wet AMD happens when abnormal blood vessels grow underneath your retina. Two variants of this disease exist, Dry and Wet AMD.ĭry AMD occurs when the macula becomes thinner with age, causing the gradual loss of your central vision. AMD affects your ability to see fine details and is a leading cause of vision loss in people over 50 years old. Several eye diseases can affect the retina, optic nerve, and blood vessels that OCT can help diagnose, such as:Īge-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes central vision loss while your peripheral vision is unaffected. Early detection is important for eye diseases like glaucoma, which may not present any symptoms until vision loss occurs. Your optometrist may use OCT during your comprehensive eye exam or if you’re at risk of eye disease due to conditions like diabetes. After reviewing the OCT results, your optometrist can diagnose any eye conditions and recommend a treatment plan for you. The machine then scans your eyes for around 5 to 10 minutes to create a detailed profile. When your eye doctor plans to use OCT during your exam, what should you expect? What to expect with OCTīefore your exam begins, your optometrist may administer dilating eye drops for an easier examination. With OCT, your optometrist doesn’t need to guess if there is retinal swelling they can look at the detailed information the images provide. The images help with diagnosis and treatment planning for different eye conditions and tracking the retina’s healing process. With the constructed profile, your optometrist can measure your retina’s thickness and see its different layers. These light waves reflect off of different depths within the eye to reconstruct a profile, while a laterally scanning light beam creates a 3D image of the eye. OCT is similar to an ultrasound, using light waves instead of sound waves. If your optometrist uses OCT in your eye exam, how does it work, and what should you expect to happen? How Does OCT Work? OCT is an effective assessment tool for several reasons: It can effectively view and capture images of the retina with detail and accuracy. OCT is similar to an ultrasound, but it uses light instead of sound. These help your optometrist identify and diagnose eye diseases. A noninvasive laser obtains images of the layers of the retina and optic nerve. OCT is an imaging tool for capturing high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the back of your eye.

What is OCT, and what is it used for? Before your next eye exam, learn more about optical coherence tomography. Several tools help your optometrist to examine your eyes, including optical coherence tomography (or OCT). Examining your eye health can help identify any potential problems.

They’ll assess your overall eye health to check for eye diseases. During an eye exam, your optometrist doesn’t only test your vision.

Before your eyes disease