fbpx

What is the Air Puff test for?

What is the Air Puff test for?

Did you know that there are over 400,000 Canadians who have glaucoma?  And about 50{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5} of the glaucoma patients do not know they have it.  That is a pretty scary thought especially when glaucoma is a preventable blinding disease.

Glaucoma is a disease where there is an increase of eye pressure in your eye.  This leads to excess pressure to your optic nerve.  This extra stress causes the loss of nerve tissue and may lead to peripheral vision loss.  Luckily your eye care doctor can detect this disease with ease.

At Avenue Eyecare, we can detect this disease with our newest technology.

eye checking machines

1. The Air puff Test

This test is dreaded by everybody; however, it’s a very important test. The air puff test emits a gentle puff of air onto the front part of your eye (cornea) and distorts the shape of the cornea.  It measures the time the cornea recovers back to it’s normal shape.  The airpuff test is a great screening test for glaucoma for children and low risk patients.  However, higher risks patients with glaucoma will not be monitored with this technique.  Instead Dr. Tung and Dr. Chang will use Goldmann Tonometry which includes some yellow numbing drops and a blue light probe to measure your pressure directly on the cornea.

2. Digital Retinal Photos

We document every optic nerve head with a retinal photo.  This allows us to track any changes to your optic nerve head accurately.  This test is performed on every new patient for our comprehensive eye exam.

3. FDT Visual Field

This instrument is a great tool which allows to check your peripheral side vision.  The advantage of the FDT technology, is that it allows us to detect early signs of peripheral vision loss.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Dr. Sherman Tung OD FAAO  drtung@avenueeyecare.com