When did you last have an eye test?

[OverdueForAnEyeTest]

I’ve just realised that it’s been about twenty years since I last had one. Out of curiosity when did you last have an eye test?

Every 2 years and have done for around 20 years. Only just started to wear readers.

I felt it's important not only for eyesight checks but also health checks.

For kids it's equally important to have their sight tested as their eyes change a lot as the grow and glasses may help with reading. Sometimes they need glasses when young but their eyes change and then they don't need them when they are older.

People saying "my sight is fine so I don't need to go" - you do realise they check your general eye health and look out for things like cancer too?

@biscuitsandbooks as I have said previously, how are you supposed to know to go for an eye test if you have no eyesight issues? Is there some kind of adulting handbook that everyone else is using?
It's like people saying they had something picked up on a routine blood test or hearing test or x-ray. I don't have any of those things routinely.

July 2024.

I have one every year when the opticians send me a reminder.

6 months ago. It’s recommended for me to go annually.

I get a letter telling me when I'm due a test and always have don't since I was a child - just like when I'm due at the dentist.

Whenever I've moved areas I've registered with the local optician, the same as I register with a GP. It's basic healthcare to me, you shouldn't need to be told.

I never got letters about eye tests as a child, because my eyesight is good. Therefore I never developed a habit of registering with an optician and it was never basic healthcare for me.

Last year. I have to buy new glasses😣

Last week! Picked up my new frames on Monday. I go every six months.

The dentist on the other hand...

I didn't have issues until I was 7/8 either, I still went for regular tests and my parents got regular reminders about it.

I actually think there is adulting handbook but in restricted amount of copies. Some people who read it themselves or their parents read it and passed the knowledge are more successful in life.
It’s not me by the way I only saw a few chapters.
MN is good for this as some people here have seen the book and kindly share info with others 🙂

how are you supposed to know to go for an eye test if you have no eyesight issues? Is there some kind of adulting handbook that everyone else is using?

I suppose it's obvious if, like many of us, you know someone who has had an unsuspected eye problem show up.

It'd probably be good if SpecSavers did some 'should have gone to specsavers' ads about such things but it'd be hard for them to hit the humorous tone of their usual ones focussed (yeah) on shortsightedness.

Perhaps she never got taken to the optician as a child?

TBH I thought it was common knowledge that regular eye tests should be done, but clearly not.

The other thing is that you don't always know that you might need glasses. I remember a boy at school failing his driving test because he couldn't read the car number plate from the required distance. It is shocking that he even got as far as taking a test.

Exactly.

And also eyesight changes can be small and you don't really notice. We can think we have perfect vision but then we put on glasses and suddenly realise our eyesight wasn't as good as we thought.

@RampantIvy yes, true.

The other thing I was going to add is how do people know they don't have issues if they d never been checked? Just because you think everything is okay, doesn't mean it is.

Every 2 years. I've worn glasses since I was 7 so have regular checks.

Anyway @InMySpareTime - hopefully you and the OP will take this thread as a belated 'adulting handbook' on this topic!

My DF didn't know he had anything wrong with his eyes until the morning his acute glaucoma hit him. He was extremely fortunate that he realised something was seriously wrong, went straight to the GP who immediately called an ambulance. He was my chemistry teacher at the time - I was queued up outside the lab for a morning lesson, had no idea why he didn't show up as he'd been fine afaik at breakfast!

I last went to an optician about 10 years ago, maybe longer, but I've had basic vision checks at health check ups, most recently this spring.

But now I think I ought to go to the opticians for a proper check.

Surprisingly easy to do when you're bending down focusing (in both senses) on something else. My grandparents used to stick old tennis balls on top of all the dozens and dozens of supportive bamboo stakes scattered throughout their flower-filled back garden to avoid this exact scenario. I never thought to ask where the hell they got so many old tennis balls from.

Edit: I suppose in your case it was more like haypoke. Happens to guinea pigs a lot. Less common in humans.

@LockForMultiball - cane toppers are a good idea, but there's so much random stuff in most gardens. It's a lot more foolproof to shove on a pair of glasses (lightweight safety glasses or big sunnies, depending on brightness) as automatically as gardening gloves.

I still get occasional irritation in my right eye years after that bloody grass stem attacked me.

Oh you're absolutely right. We get one pair of eyes, and they're so easily damaged, sometimes without us even realising (e.g. UV, like you mentioned, or unnoticed disease processes like glaucoma), and once damaged, don't always go back to how they used to be. (And entertainingly, if you damage an eye badly enough, there's a tiny chance that your immune system, having been introduced to eye material for the first time, will throw a shit fit and attack your other eye too. Very rare though. But still. FFS.)

TBH though, my whole family are all full-time glasses-wearers on both sides, and though they're not as good as proper eye protection, a pair of ordinary glasses deflects most things short of a firmly-planted cane.

Whenever I've moved areas I've registered with the local optician, the same as I register with a GP. It's basic healthcare to me, you shouldn't need to be told.

I'm not saying anyone should have told me, but I just didn't know 🤷🏼‍♀️ I had never received a letter about eye tests since childhood, no GP ever told me I should have eye tests, and I must have missed any public health marketing stating that eyes should be tested regularly. I just missed the memo I guess! Now wondering if there are other health tests I'm supposed to be having. 🤔

I hadn't had one since I was a young child but had one recently (i am 38) as I was recommended to by the GP due to getting an occular migraine.
I had it and I have better than perfect vision apparently 20/15.
Which I'm proud about with no justification to be lmao.. but it gives me no insight as to why I had an occular migraine.

And yeah it just never registered on me that it was healthcare so I never thought of getting my eyes tested until directly told by the GP..
Embarrassingly I didn't have a dentist from the age of 15 to two years ago! I only got one because my teeth got weak during pregnancy.. I had to have my first ever filling

January. Last of a series of 3, 2-3 months apart plus a cataract op. The problem is far from fixed, even with the cataract gone and I need to go back. Probably to a different optician with a fresh pair of eyes, so to speak, even though I've been going to my current one for years.