Specialist Equipment
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. We're specialists. We don’t spend money on advertising - we spend it on equipment to make sure that we know everything about your eyes and sight so we can fit you with the very best lens for your particular problem.
We’ve invested over £200,000 for a comprehensive array of state of the art, highly sophisticated equipment you won’t find at any high street chain optician. Depending on your age and your particular visual error we’ll use some or all of this specialist equipment to help us diagnose and prescribe for your individual needs.
This testing takes time and is one of the reasons why you need to allow an hour or two for your first appointment. The other reason is that you’ll find that we want to talk to you so that we can understand your history and your lifestyle both of which are important factors in deciding the most suitable solution for you.
Our equipment includes:
 3D OCT Scanner
This revolutionary scanner is not even available yet in many Eye Hospitals. Click here to discover why Ophthalmologists refer their patients to us to be scanned on this potential ‘sight saver’.
|
 Auto Refractor/
Keratometer
Records a precise measurement of your error of vision with or without specs or contacts as well as the curvature of the front surface of your cornea. We use this information as a starting point for our initial sight testing and fitting of Contact Lenses.
|
 Electronic Refractor
Head
Information from the auto refractor is relayed to this instrument which contains all the trial lenses for testing your sight.This means no old fashioned 'Trial Spec Frame' on the end of your nose with interminable changes of little round spec lenses….But don’t worry in the unlikely event that the electronics should ever fail, with over 90 years experience between the 3 of us, you can be sure that we know how to do things the old fashioned way!
|
 Slit Lamp Binocular
Microscope
This gives us an amazing 45 times magnification of the whole of the front surfaces of the eye and cornea, and also stores video digital images for future reference. As well as early recognition of changes caused by contacts that have become a poor fit it also lets us observe the intra-ocular lens for the earliest signs of cataracts.
|
 IMAGEnet Retinal
Camera
This is the high tech version of the Opthalmoscope - the hand held "torch" that your optician used to shine in your eye. Unlike the Opthalmoscope that only allowed your Optician to see how things as they are at the time, with the Retinal Camera, the images of the whole of the retina are magnified and stored digitally for future reference. This is so important as changes in this area allow us to spot early signs of serious eye diseases like glaucoma and macular degeneration both of which can lead to blindness. Changes in the retina can also be an indicator of other potential health problems such as diabetes, heart problems and renal conditions. Geoff is very proud to point out that in 1995 he bought the very first Retinal Camera in the UK, which then cost £45,000. Even though today they only cost £12,000 many opticians are still using the Opthalmoscope - which hasn't been improved since it was first used in the 1800s.
|
| |
|
 Non-Contact Tonometer
This measures the intra-ocular pressure of each eye using a micro pulse of air to screen for glaucoma. Glaucoma is one of the most prevalent blinding eye diseases but if diagnosed early enough is fully treatable, so all our patients over the age of 40 are automatically screened at every annual after care check or more regularly if there is a family history.
|
 The Henson Visual
Field Screener
This is also used to check for glaucoma. Another early warning sign of this disease is failing peripheral vision. When you read letters on a chart for us we are only checking your far and near vision at the centre of the eye. The Henson Visual Field Screener checks your peripheral vision. Sometimes, even if you have excellent central vision abnormal defects can occur at the edges which are usually the early indicator of glaucoma.
|
  The Corneal
Topographer
This very latest piece of high tech equipment is an incredible tool giving us all kinds of data previously unavailable to us. It allows shows us a simulation of the fitting of any lens actually on your cornea. We can view different types on screen before we decide which will be the most suitable lenses to order. Having made our choice we then email the whole digital file to our laboratory where it is input directly to computer controlled lathes which cut all the curves on the lens to directly match your cornea! Using this equipment has revolutionised fitting in our practice especially for the most complex patients - astigmats, keratoconics for example. It is also invaluable for Ortho-K, the procedure where we modify the corneal shape with contacts worn overnight to correct vision errors – a much safer technique than invasive procedures such as laser surgery.us to plot the shape of the whole corneal surface in 3D something never before possible.
|
 Specular
Microscope
Usually only found in some Eye Hospitals. It is used to view the endothelium cells which are located on the back of the cornea at 400 times magnification. These cells are vital to corneal health as they draw oxygen into the cornea and drive the carbon dioxide out. It's here that the very earliest signs of any damage caused by over wear or the wearing of lenses that don't allow enough oxygen to reach the eye show up. This is obviously critical but surprisingly few opticians have invested in this piece of equipment, which also measures the corneal thickness - so allowing us to spot and resolve a problem before it even starts.
|
|
Back to Top