Contact Lens Exam: What Should I Expect at the Eye Doctor?

A contact lens exam is an essential step in achieving clear, comfortable vision with contact lenses. Unlike a routine eye exam, this specialized appointment focuses on ensuring your lenses fit properly and support long-term eye health. At Paradise Canyon Eye Care, Dr. Joseph Fife, a trusted eye doctor in St. George, UT, provides personalized contact lens exams tailored to your vision needs and lifestyle.

What Is a Contact Lens Exam?

A contact lens exam is different from a routine eye exam. While a standard eye exam checks your overall vision and eye health, a contact lens exam goes a step further. It ensures that contact lenses fit your eyes properly, provide clear vision, and keep your eyes healthy over time. Because contact lenses sit directly on the surface of your eyes, precision matters.

While the soft contact lens evaluation is a separate charge from the comprehensive eye exam, it is frequently performed during the same visit. If your specific diagnostic lenses are in stock, Dr. Fife can often complete the evaluation immediately.

Reviewing Your Eye Health and Vision History

Your contact lens exam typically begins with a conversation. Dr. Fife will ask questions about:

• Your vision needs (work, school, sports, or hobbies)

• Any past experience with contact lenses

• Eye dryness, irritation, or allergies

• Your general health and medications

This information helps tailor your contact lens options to your lifestyle and comfort needs.

Comprehensive Eye Exam

Before fitting contact lenses, your eyes must be healthy. During this portion of the visit, your eye doctor will check your visual acuity, evaluate your prescription, and examine the health of your cornea, retina, and optic nerve. If you need vision correction for nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, or presbyopia, this step ensures your contact lens prescription is accurate.

Measuring Your Eyes for Contact Lenses

Unlike glasses, contact lenses are not one-size-fits-all. Precise measurements are essential for comfort and eye safety. During this step, Dr. Fife will measure the curvature of your cornea, the diameter of your eyes, and tear film quality to assess dryness. These measurements help determine which type of contact lens will fit you best.

Contact Lens Fitting and Trial Lenses

Once your measurements are complete, trial lenses may be placed on your eyes. This allows Dr. Fife to evaluate how the lenses sit, how they move when you blink, and your overall vision clarity.

If the necessary diagnostic lenses are not immediately available, we will order them for you. Once they arrive, we will have you return for an office visit to ensure the lenses provide the clear vision and fit you deserve.

Note on Specialty Lenses: RGP (Rigid Gas Permeable) and scleral lenses are significantly more time-consuming. These require separate office visits from yearly comprehensive exams and frequently require multiple visits to finalize.

Learning How to Use and Care for Your Lenses

If you’re a new soft contact lens wearer, we will provide hands-on training for the insertion and removal of the lenses the same day. Once you have shown you can properly handle the lenses, we will send you home with the diagnostic lenses.

New wearers will return in one week, so Dr. Fife can evaluate how the lenses are performing and address any questions that arose during your first week of wear.

Final Prescription and Follow-Up

For previous soft contact lens wearers, we can often finalize the prescription the same day if there is only a slight change. However, if we change your brand or there is a significant prescription change, we will schedule a one-week follow-up. This ensures the fit remains good and gives you the opportunity to try the diagnostic lenses before purchasing a full year's supply.

Why Choose a Local Eye Doctor in St. George, UT?

Choosing a local provider like Paradise Canyon Eye Care means personalized care from an eye doctor who understands the community. Dr. Fife takes the time to ensure your contact lenses not only improve your vision but also support your long-term eye health.

Schedule your contact lens exam at Paradise Canyon Eye Care and take the next step toward healthier eyes and better vision. Visit our office in St. George, Utah, or call (435) 291-5093 to book an appointment today.

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