An opticians in Scunthorpe has recently invested in hospital-quality technology, which can help detect treatable eye conditions such as macular degeneration sooner.
Specsavers Scunthorpe has invested £50,000 into an OCT (optical coherence tomography) machine and viewing screens, in order to bring ultimate peace of mind to its customers. The scan, which only takes a few seconds, allows an optician to look deeper into the eyes than ever before and it can help to detect glaucoma up to four years in advance.
Given that nearly half of all sight loss is preventable, an OCT scan means conditions can be managed before they get worse and can help prevent potential sight loss.
Agyapal Dhaliwal, ophthalmic partner says: ‘This investment gives us the ability to enhance the services to the local community by identifying and helping to detect or manage conditions, with a level of diagnostic capability which previously would have needed a hospital visit.’
An OCT scan uses light to take more than 1,000 images of the back of your eye and beyond, looking right back to the optic nerve and creating a cross-section view.
‘You can imagine it like a cake – we can see the top of the cake and the icing, but the image produced from an OCT scan slices the cake in half and turns it on its side, so we can see all the layers inside,’ says Charlotte. ‘It gives the optician an incredibly accurate picture of your eye and its structures, allowing them to check your eye health.’
A customer’s OCT images will be stored on file so we can help note changes over time – a real benefit to the monitoring of someone’s overall eye health.
An OCT scan is in addition to a normal eye test and can be requested when you book an appointment or when you arrive in store.
Specsavers across England, will stay open for all eye and hearing needs now most of the country is in lockdown. Under current government guidance, people are allowed to leave home to attend medical appointments, including eye and hearing tests, which are considered essential healthcare services. If customers can’t leave home unaccompanied for an eye test, they can request a home visit from Specsavers instead.
Specsavers’ colleagues use personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout the stores and frames are thoroughly sanitised before and after each use. Customers are also asked to request an appointment in advance by phone or online through the Specsavers website to help manage social distancing and minimise time spent in store.
