Instead, ask a friend or family member to accompany you to the appointment and drive you home. Your doctor can advise you on how often you’ll need to have your eyes dilated.ĪLSO RELATED: Why do I need my eyes dilated? How long after eye dilation can I drive?īecause your vision may be blurry and your eyes more sensitive to light for several hours, you may find it difficult to drive after eye dilation. Ask your eye doctor how often you need eye dilation. People with diabetes or high blood pressure may need a dilated eye exam at least once a year. The National Eye Institute recommends getting an eye dilation exam every one or two years if you are: Your age, overall health, eye health and risk of eye diseases all determine when you should have a dilated eye exam. How often you’ll need eye dilation depends on a few factors. The doctor can determine whether the post-dilation pain could be a result of narrow-angle glaucoma or another medical condition. If you feel pain once you go home after your eye dilation exam, let your eye doctor know. However, your eyes may sting temporarily from the dilating eye drops. Is eye dilation painful?Įye dilation is generally painless. Your near vision will be blurry during eye dilation, so you won’t be able to read a magazine, text messages or emails while waiting for your eyes to become fully dilated.Īfter the eye dilation exam, your near vision may continue to be blurry, and your eyes may still be sensitive to light for a few to several hours. It generally takes about 20 to 30 minutes for your pupils to fully open. These cells convert light into electrical signals, which the brain processes as visual images.Įye dilation also gives the eye doctor a better look at the optic nerve, which is connected to the retina and transmits impulses to the brain to be interpreted as visual images.ĭuring a dilated eye exam, your eye doctor can detect: The retina consists of several layers, including a layer that has photoreceptor cells. Once your pupils are fully dilated, your doctor has a better view of the retina, which is the sensory membrane at the back of your eyeball. This allows more light into the eye, similar to the way you might open a window blind to let more light into a dark room. These special drops cause the pupils to widen, or dilate, fully. What are dilated pupils?ĭuring eye dilation, an eye doctor puts dilating eye drops into both of your eyes. During eye dilation, the procedure allows an eye doctor to better examine the back of your eye to diagnose common eye and other medical conditions or diseases.Ī dilated eye exam is an important part of managing your eye health, since it can reveal eye and other medical conditions that may not otherwise cause obvious symptoms. Eye dilation widens the pupils, which are the black circles in the center of the iris of your eye.
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