Lowes & Partners Optometrists, Whangarei, Northland, Kaikohe, KeriKeri, lenses, eyewear, contact lenses, glasses, eye exams, sunglasses

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We also have digital retina photography which provides a permanent record and benchmark of the health of the back of the eye.

Such techniques are essential particularly if you have a personal or family history of conditions such as diabetes, vascular disease or hypertension and similarly in ocular conditions such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. These two conditions are associated with the normal ageing process.

Early detection improves the outcome. The sooner it is discovered the sooner any treatment can begin leading to a better result for the client. It can occur in children but is most common in the over forties.

Those at greatest risk are diabetics and clients with family history although having a family history doesn't necessarily mean that you will develop the condition.

Computerised Visual Field Analysis
This procedure enables us as never before to very accurately and reproducibly measure the sensitivity of peripheral vision. This is important because disease may affect our peripheral vision first and we may easily miss the early warning signs.


Normal Visual Field	Glaucomatous Visual Field

Field analysis, in common with retinal photography, enables the detection of conditions of which otherwise we may have been unaware and hence allows for early referral for specialist care with a resultant better outcome.


Normal Healthy Retina	Hypertensive Blood Vessels

For the best outcome, Lowes & Partners strongly advise clients to have regular eye examinations, including tonometry to measure the pressure in the eye, computerised screening of peripheral vision and photographs of the back of the eye.

The results of these can be examined at each appointment and saved on the computer to be used for comparison with subsequent tests. This is important as small changes can be picked up.

Until now it has been difficult to obtain a clear magnified image of the back of the eye to screen for changes associated with, for example, hypertension, age-related macular degeneration, diabetes, glaucoma and other abnormalities.

All of these conditions can alter the shape and size of the blood vessels at the back of the eye and cause leakage resulting in exudates and haemorrhages, which are sight-threatening conditions.

Previously is was not possible to examine the whole of the back of the eye at once without resorting to dilating the pupil with drops, a time consuming procedure which can also disrupt vision for many hours.

The installation of a Digital Retina Camera allows us the facility of taking exceptionally high-resolution digital photographs of the whole of the back and front of the eye.

The image can be magnified many times, measured and processed without loss of resolution. The image can also be printed onto high quality photographic paper or exported via email to your GP, specialist or your own home computer.

This is truly the way of the future and we commend it to you!

Glaucoma
Don't lose your visual field by neglecting to have regular eye exams. Vision lost to glaucoma cannot be restored.
Glaucoma is the main cause of preventable blindness in New Zealand. It is usually associated with raised pressure within the eye but can occur in eyes with normal pressure.
There are often no symptoms in the early stages although an acute attack can be very painful, with redness in the eye and loss of peripheral vision.

Normal Sight

Sight with glaucoma