Digital Retinal Imaging
What is Digital Retinal Imaging?
Retinal imaging takes a digital picture of the back of your eye. It shows the retina (where light and images hit), the optic disk (a spot on the retina that holds the optic nerve, which sends information to the brain), and blood vessels. This helps your optometrist or ophthalmologist find certain diseases and check the health of your eyes.
Doctors have long used a tool called an ophthalmoscope to look at the back of your eye. Retinal imaging allows doctors to get a much wider digital view of the retina. It doesn’t replace a regular eye exam, but adds another layer of precision to it.
What Are the Benefits & Drawbacks?
Retinal imaging allows eye doctors to see signs of eye diseases that they couldn’t see before. The test itself is painless and the results are easy for doctors to interpret. Your doctor can store the images on a computer and compare them with other scans.
Retinal imaging has its limitations. It can’t detect a disease where the retina is bleeding. It also may not see problems on the outer edges of your retina.
Retinal imaging may be covered by your medical insurance (not your vision insurance) or Medicare. It depends on the terms of your policy as well as the reason you are having the test done.