Optical Coherence Tomography and you

In the last newsletter, we talked about retinal photographs and how important it is that we can take a photograph of the back of your eye and compare it to the photographs from last year and before. If there are any significant changes, we said, we’ll spot them and can act accordingly.

Imagine the retinal photograph as a photograph of your skin. That’s great, if we take another in a year, we’ll be able to see if anything’s changed.

It only goes so far, though. What’s happening underneath the skin? What if we could see in 3D, under the skin, see the dermis underneath, the fat layer under that, then the muscles and finally bone? That would be much more thorough.

Well, nowadays we can do that with the back of your eye, in less than a second. Our new Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanner (layer scanner to you and me) does all the hard work. Using it, we’ll be able to see the layers under the surface of your retina and we’ll be able to spot changes earlier and act sooner to protect your eyesight where appropriate.

So whereas a ‘normal’ eye test can tell you how your eyesight is and give some information about your general health, and an eye test with a retinal photograph can give us advanced warning of significant changes, a layer scan can safeguard your health and provide you with that extra reassurance that you’ve taken every reasonable precaution to protect your sight into the future.

The scan itself is, of course, quick and comfortable. Here’s the promotional video from the manufacturer which shows some of the detailed scans we are now able to provide to help us keep you healthy.

Our OCT layer scanner allows us to provide leading edge eyecare today. Few opticians practices have invested as much as we have in the care of your sight, and we are the first Optician’s practice in Scarborough to offer this service.