Specsavers Longford taking a deeper look into your eyes

Liz Bonnin – natural history, science and environmental TV presenter – has announced Specsavers’ Longford investment in hospital-quality equipment that can help detect treatable eye conditions sooner.

Specsavers Longford has introduced an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanner - a cutting-edge piece of equipment that allows opticians to view the eye in more detail than ever before.

It is all part of its commitment to providing its customers with access to the very latest optical technology, helping to detect a number of eye conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, sooner. OCT can also 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.

An OCT scan, which only takes a few seconds, 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.  Imagine it like a cake – you 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 you can see all the layers inside. It gives your optician an incredibly accurate picture of your eye and its structures.

Speaking at the launch of the OCT campaign, Liz, commented: "I am short sighted and have always relied on regular eye checks, so I was keen to help raise awareness about their importance, especially as early detection is vital in the fight against preventable sight loss. The OCT scan can detect eye health conditions before physical symptoms are presented.

"Specsavers Longford is leading the way in terms of the advanced technology on offer in store. An OCT scan would have previously required a hospital visit, but now there really is no excuse to not keep on top of our eye health."

Speaking about the state-of-the-art optical technology, Specsavers Longford store director Fiona Ferguson, remarked: ‘This innovative technology gives our opticians the ability to enhance the offering for customers by identifying and helping to detect or manage conditions. OCT technology produces such a detailed picture of the structures in the eye that it allows us to identify signs of diseases years earlier than traditional methods. Given that 75% of vision impairment and blindness can be prevented, the sooner we can detect these conditions, the sooner we can help manage them or refer people for treatment."

The scan is in addition to a thorough eye test, during which the optometrist uses a range of clinical tests and procedures to measure the quality of someone’s vision and the health of their eyes.

The OCT scan is non-contact and painless. A customer’s OCT images are also stored on file, so Specsavers optometrists can note any changes over time – a real benefit when monitoring someone’s overall eye health.

OCT is now available in Specsavers Longford.

For more information on the services available at Specsavers Longford or to make an appointment, please visit www.specsavers.ie/stores/ longford, call 043 333 6276, or pop into store at The White House, 17 Ballymahon Street, Longford.