Taking proper care of your eyes is one of the most essential elements of being healthy. Regular eye exams thus have to be a necessary part of your medical routine. Most people tend to be slightly put off at the various procedures opticians use to determine vision problems, but that is really quite unjustified. We aim to tell you a few things about this process by which vision problems are checked. Knowing what is being done might just make the whole thing easier, and far more relaxing.

Depending on how complex your own case is, tests primarily mean testing your eyes through various degrees of light and different lenses. The overall impact of these tests determines ? your eye structure, diseases if any, and vision problems. The latter mostly is understood by noting abnormalities in your eye structure. Sometimes, and this is something everyone knows about, the doctor might ask you to read something. This is one of the most reliable, and time tested method to check for vision problems.

The way it works ? An eye examination can take anything from 20 minutes to two hours, depending on your particular case and how thoroughly the optician would like to examine. It is very advisable to have regular checks ? that way; you can treat a problem at the earliest stage, before it becomes too serious.

? You need to provide a brief medical history; whether family members before you have had severe eye problems, your own case etc. These are all noted down and would be referred to every time you need to go back for a re-check, and has to be updated as well. This is your ?case?.

? External examination - of the cornea, the skin surface etc. This is done by flashing light on your eyes.

?Finally, checking for ?vision acuity? ? in other words, the condition your eye sight is in. Whether you need glasses you need, what power of lenses to use and things like that are decided by using various lenses. If you have any eye diseases, there are also noted and precautions asked to be taken.

Prescription follows.

How frequently you need to go for eye tests depend on your AGE and the CONDITION OF YOUR EYE.

? For a young adult with normal vision, taking a test once, say VERY 7 YEARS, is ok, while you are in your 20s and 30s. If, however, you have had eye problems in the family, maybe you ought to be more careful.

? Once past 40, watch out for ?reading problems?. That means the time for reading glasses, if not ?bifocals?. If you are 60 years or older, make sure to have your eyes tested EVERY 2 YEARS. Special cases ? if you have:

1. chronic diabetes, or

2. had been a premature birth (chances of retina problems), or

3. an African-American heritage (chance of glaucoma), then you need to check more frequently.

Finally, children. Have your baby checked for cross eye, lazy eye etc. before the age of 3. This is very important for the future.

Also, once the child reaches the age of 5 and is about to enter school, an eye test is a must. After that, once every year is the ideal, but you need to follow your physician's advice.