New Medical Device to Measure Eye Pressure for Glaucoma – without eyedrops
Several different devices are in use for measuring eye pressure for those who have glaucoma or for glaucoma testing at routine eye examinations and screenings. Some devices such as the dreaded air puffer can potentially scare a patient enough so that they never return to an eye doctor’s office.
At Complete Family Eyecare, we want to make your visit as pleasant as possible so have never used the air puffer but have instead utilized the Goldman Applanation Tonometry which is the standard of care in measuring eye pressure. It is very accurate, repeatable, painless, and patient friendly however it requires an anesthetic eye drop to numb the surface of the eye. Many patients are hesitant/scared to death of any eyedrops but are equally scared of the air puffer (requires no drops but is very annoying) so sometimes refuse any sort of eye pressure testing which is quite dangerous as un-diagnosed glaucoma can lead to severe and permanent vision loss.
Recent advancement in comfortable and accurate eye pressure measuring have resulted in production of the new iCare Tonometer which we now offer in our office. This medical device measures the eye pressure by applying a small probe to the tear layer on the surface of the eye. The probe is very fast and patients usually don’t feel anything other than tickling sensation of their eyelashes. No eyedrops and no air puffer!
The iCare tonometer is very close in accuracy to the blue light Goldman tonometer when checking eye pressure or screening for glaucoma. However, if a patient’s pressure measures high with the iCare tonometer or they are being actively treated for glaucoma, it is recommended that the pressure be tested with the Goldmann tonometer. Also, measuring eye pressure is an important first step in testing for glaucoma but there are many other factors that can affect glaucoma testing and treatment options. These factors can only be determined by a comprehensive eye examination at our office.
Unfortunately, most adult patients will still need to have their pupils dilated for proper inspection of the inner workings of their eyes. Although the iCare tonometry does not require eyedrops, pupil dilation requires a dilation eyedrop but the anesthetic drop for the Goldmann tonometer is not required.
Complete Family Eye care has all the state of the art equipment used in diagnosing and treating all types of glaucoma. This includes, retinal photography, gonioscopy, optical coherence tomography (OCT) Humphrey visual field testing, and other technologies as well as Dr. Steve’s 25 years experience in treating glaucoma and other visually threatening diseases.