Contact Lens Exams

During a contact lens exam, Dr. Rose will perform several tests to assess your overall eye health and visual acuity to determine if you are a candidate for contact lenses based upon your refraction (the exact measurement of your nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism or presbyopia). Dr. Rose will also evaluate you for dry eye or an inadequate tear film, which can make contact lens wear very difficult. Because dry eye can affect your visual results and cause significant discomfort and irritation, diagnosis and treatment are essential to the success of contact lenses.

If you are a candidate for contact lenses, we’ll gather more information to help us fit you with contact lenses. We will talk with you about your lifestyle and discuss your expectations for contact lenses. We will also explain the various types of contact lenses and decide together what is best. Some lens options we may discuss are: 

• Daily disposable, overnight and colored contact lenses
• Gas permeable (rigid) vs. silicone hydrogel (soft) contact lenses
• Multifocal (range of powers) vs. bifocal (two prescriptions in the same lens) and monovision fitting (each lens addresses a different problem i.e., one for distance vision and one for near vision).

Eye Measurements

The shape of your eye will determine if you can wear contact lenses and which kind. Measuring or mapping the corneal surface is one of the most important goals of contact lens exams.  If your cornea is too flat or too steep, some contact lenses may be ineffective.

During your appointment, we will measure the central curvature of your cornea (clear front surface of your eye) using a tool called a keratometer. We will also evaluate the surface of your cornea using an automated instrument called a corneal topographer. Corneal topography provides precise details about the entire cornea’s surface. Both techniques measure light reflections off of your eye and give us the information needed to determine your best contact lens solution for optimal vision. We will also measure your pupils and irises.

Contact Lens Fitting

During the contact lens fitting portion of your exam, we will use “trial lenses” and examine you with a slit lamp. The slit lamp allows a magnified view of the contact lens so we can determine if the contact lenses are resting correctly on the corneal surface of your eye. It also allows us to check for any changes caused by wearing contact lenses. During follow-up visits, we will perform a test to uncover any potential defects and ensure that your contact lenses are not causing damage to the surface of your eyes.

Once we've fit you for contact lenses, we will train you to properly insert, remove and store your new lenses and review essential hygiene techniques.

You likely will need to make a return visit, possibly more, to get the best fitting contact lenses. We will ensure that your lenses are giving you the vision you expected and are not "too tight" or "too loose," but "just right."

Typically you will follow-up with yearly exams to monitor the health of your eyes, unless we specify that you should be seen more often, or an issue arises and you need to be seen. 
Dr.  Shilpa Rose can see patients for contact lens fittings at any of our locations.