Services

General eye tests

A typical eye examination at one of our practices usually takes about 30 minutes. During this time the optometrist will ask for a detailed history of your eye and general health. It is important that you provide the optometrist with as much information as requested no matter how insignificant you think it is. The optometrist will then perform several tests including:

• Determining if you have any refractive errors such as short-sightedness (myopia), long-sightedness (hyperopia) or astigmatism
• Ensuring your focussing ability is adequate
• Evaluating your eye muscle movement and control
• Examining the front and back surfaces of the eye in order to detect eye disease
• Evaluating eye complications of systemic disease e.g. diabetes, hypertension, arthritis etc
• Evaluating your colour vision
• Evaluating your depth perception
• Exploring your field of view
• Looking for specific eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataract and others

After the examination the optometrist will discuss your results and provide you with appropriate recommendations. Sometimes that may simply involve an examination in a few years. Alternatively, they may suggest glasses, contact lenses or exercises. Please feel free to ask any questions, no matter how insignificant you think they may be.

In cases where there is a condition which requires referral, the optometrist will organize the appointment with you and let both the specialist and your local doctor know of their actions.

Currently Medicare covers the cost of most examinations. If you have been to another optometrist within the last 2 years there may be a fee associated with the examination, of which Medicare will cover about 50% of the cost.

Children's Vision Clinic

Even children with excellent vision can have vision related learning difficulties. Kosmac & Clemens provide a specialized service for children that have specific learning disabilities. These tests are referred to as Visual Information Processing or VIP tests. They differ from a normal eye test described above in that they take a full hour to perform. Our Children's Vision Clinic is centrally located at our Bendigo and Castlemaine practices and services all of Central Victoria.

A general eye test is required to be performed before the VIP appointment. If this has been done with another optometrist please ensure you bring with you a referral letter to avoid any extra costs. The VIP tests examine:

• Eye tracking
• Left-right awareness and reversal recognition
• Visual perception
• Visual motor Integration
• Memory: sequential visual, sequential auditory and abstract visualization
• Auditory analysis
• Rapid automatic naming of numbers
• Dyslexia

Following the examination you will be asked to come back to discuss the results. This appointment takes between 30-60 minutes. The optometrist will discuss all options available. You will be provided with all the information required for exercises to improve the child's visual information processing skills. If the child has dyslexia or a language-based difficulty the optometrist will suggest appropriate specialists such as speech pathologists, occupational therapists or educational psychologists.

The fee for this specialized clinic is subsidized and is currently at $259 or $229 with a health care card. If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact lens appointments

Should you wish to try contact lenses you will be required to come back and have a specialized examination specific for contact lens wear. During this examination you will be advised of the different types of contact lenses and the best choice for you. You may be provided with information sheets specific for the type of contact lenses you will be wearing. Please read these carefully and if you have any further questions please ask the optometrist at your next appointment.

The cost of the contact lens examination is covered by Medicare only if your prescription is above a certain level. If you require further information about the costs involved do not hesitate to contact us.

Refractive laser surgery

With recent advances in laser surgery many of our customers have asked to be referred for laser surgery. Our optometrists are able to refer and provide aftercare for patients who have had laser surgery. In fact, one of our own optometrists has had the LASIK procedure performed on their eyes and is extremely pleased with the outcome. By having the aftercare with us you avoid having to travel to Melbourne and wasting a whole day. If you require further information about laser surgery, the costs involved or would like to see a video of the procedure do not hesitate to contact us.

Other services

If you would like to find out about some of the other services we provide such as:

• Commercial Vehicle Driver's Licence Assessment
• Computer Vision Assessment
• Occupational-specific assessments
• Sports Vision Assessment
• LowVision Assessment

Please contact us.