Oakville Eye Exam, Optometrist Uses Latest Optical Test Technology

By Robert Campbell - May 2016.

I remember visiting an optometrist in my small town where I grew up in the nineteen seventies. The optical shop was in the man’s home and it was the crudest affair. The eye chart was just a paper poster on the wall behind the desk. Later we picked glasses from the limited selection he kept in a folding cases in another room.

My how things have changed. That 'gentleman optometrist' in Hastings Ontario in 1978 had no special tools beyond the rudimentary nose mounted phoropter. By contrast, today just about every optometrist in the province has dozens of miraculous gadgets that allow highly specialized exams and diagnoses. Today optical shops accommodate eye doctors and give eye exams to shoppers. Gone are the folding wooden briefcases filled with spectacles – now there are thousands of frames to choose from in every colour and style imaginable.

Getting an Eye Exam in Oakville

On Friday April 29th 2016, I got an eye exam in Oakville at the Next-Optical shop at 388 Speers Rd. We were attracted this location because of the reputation of their renown in-house specialists who do more than simply determine prescriptions for eyeglasses or contact lenses. The staff here also check eyes for common eye diseases, and they're gaining a reputation for how they assesses eye health and the manner and efficiencies in which patients’ eyes work together as a team. They are using advanced medical technology.

Getting an eye exam at Next Optical is a very relaxed affair. There’s gourmet coffee and high quality candies available to both shoppers and patients waiting for eye tests. The process starts with the staff engaging you in small talk as you fill out some basic medical forms on blue clipboards.

Routine eye examinations are available all day long - no need to make an appointment anymore, although they would appreciate it. In Ontario Canada, patients aged 20 to 64 are not covered by OHIP. We individual citizens are responsible for our own eye care - we pay cash for these examinations or the cost is covered by private insurance. The cost here is competitive to say the least.

Before you enter the room with Next Optical's resident Oakville optometrist, Dr Ansar Ahmed you must first enter an adjoining room and sit in a chair facing a small table on which there are three similar shaped medical devices. Each gizmo has a chin bar and forehead bracket and requires the patient stare straight ahead into the machine.

The first machine is an Auto-Refractor & Auto-Keratometer which estimates your rx and gives specific measurements.

The second is a Non-Contact Tonometer which tests the pressure inside your eyeballs for conditions such as Glaucoma. Its rather unpleasant as it issues a small burst of air directly onto your eyeball.

And the third rig was a high quality retina camera which takes a picture of the back of your eyeball.

While evaluating our eyes for glasses, this eye doctor also checks for eye diseases and other problems that could lead to vision loss. Dr Ahmed looks for all manner of refractive errors that cause nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. He scans for amblyopia. This occurs when the eyes are misaligned or when one eye has a higher degree of refractive error than the other and the brain gets involved to alter perception – it’s a fascinating study in mind body relationship. Strabismus is similar but different in that Dr Ahmed checks your eyes' alignment to be sure that they are working together. Strabismus causes problems with depth perception and misalignments that can lead to amblyopia.

Photo Above: Dr Ansar Ahmed with Son of a Beekeeper, prescription for new glasses in Oakville

Dr Ansar Ahmed is the very patient eye doctor at Next Optical.

When it came my turn in the small room with the big chair, Dr Ahmed called me in and sat me down, and we talked briefly about my vision problems and my recent habit or wearing two pairs of glasses when reading books. After listening patiently to my needs he got busy with the armature mounted phoropter and its myriad of glass lenses. He ran me through the eye charts at the back of the room with glasses and without any visual amplification and I think we were all surprised at just how blind I was… no I take that back: I don’t think he was surprised at all, and he certainly was calm and reassuring as he wrote me a paper script for new glasses.

After the eye exam we went shopping for new glasses and spent hours perusing a massive selection of designer frames from all over the world.