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Vision Field Testing
How far to the side can you see and how much of it is useful? This is also called side vision testing. It is may be a portion of a basic vision examination. There has been renewed interest in the results of Head Impact. Head Impact, unfortunately was given the scary formal name of traumatic brain injury (TBI). That name scares many, thinking the worst. Yet, rarely is it a concussion, whip lash, or brain damage. It appears to be more common than originally thought. Small impacts to the head as hitting your head entering a car or bumping into a shelf can cause changes to the vision field. The good news is that it can easily be detected, measured and successfully treated. Of even better news, more serious blows like concussion can be treated. See Blake's Vision Therapy Story under Light Therapy in Vision Therapy. |
The science of light therapy (syntonics) has brought a simpler tool to indicate when a comprehensive rather than visual field screening is necessary, and it saves time.
The alpha omega pupil response is the new tool. Normally when light is shined at the eye the pupil constricts (gets smaller) and holds that smaller diameter for a period of time.
The alpha omega pupil response is the new tool. Normally when light is shined at the eye the pupil constricts (gets smaller) and holds that smaller diameter for a period of time.
However, whenever you are hit in the head it opens sooner than normal. Our scale goes from zero to 4. A 4 would be an immediate opening while zero would be normal. Thus we only do the screening when a normal alpha/omega reaction is present. We take pupil reactions anyhow so the alpha/omega pupil test doesn’t add a lot of time to the exam. If present, we then schedule a comprehensive vision field.
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We prefer to do a hand-held test on a campimeter (seen above) rather than the digital vision field instrument because it is more meaningful to both the doctor and especially you, the patient.
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Would you rather look at this automated screening chart in figure 1 or view the testing chart in figure 2? In figure 2 you can see the outline of your actual side vision as well as the size of your blind spot. Figure 1 is just a bunch of numbers needing a lot of explanation.
Thus, we can first determine if you need more than simple screening without the automated vision field screening. This is even more important now because the long believed false notion that you can’t treat a compromised vision field has thoroughly been blasted out of the water. |
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Light therapy (Syntonics) has been the most successful treatment I have experienced in my career. Vision information processing treatment had a success rate near 90%, but this is more than 90%. We are even gaining grounds in glaucoma and stroke thought impossible to treat.
Once we see the results, we can determine treatment with light therapy and then retest the field to see the change. On occasions, thankfully rare, we could detect glaucoma or a pituitary tumor.
You will be comfortably seated (some smaller kids stand) and look into the campimeter with one eye blocked. You constantly look directly at a target in the center of the screen while an assistant moves a small target at the end of a wand from the side until you see it. Once the sides are checked, we do the same for your blind spot in that eye. We then do the same for the other eye. We have been able to measure children as young as five.
Once we see the results, we can determine treatment with light therapy and then retest the field to see the change. On occasions, thankfully rare, we could detect glaucoma or a pituitary tumor.
You will be comfortably seated (some smaller kids stand) and look into the campimeter with one eye blocked. You constantly look directly at a target in the center of the screen while an assistant moves a small target at the end of a wand from the side until you see it. Once the sides are checked, we do the same for your blind spot in that eye. We then do the same for the other eye. We have been able to measure children as young as five.