If you look straight ahead and focus on a single point, your visual field includes the entire area you can see without moving your eyes or head. Your visual field encompasses central and peripheral vision.

Central vision is the area you see in the center of your vision as you look straight ahead. Losing your central vision affects your ability to see shapes and details, making it hard to read and see faces. At first, central vision loss may appear as blurred spots. Over time, they enlarge and turn into dark or blank spots.

Peripheral vision refers to what you can see to the left and right sides as you keep your eyes fixed on a spot directly ahead of you.

Testing your visual field allows your provider to find blind spots and early signs of vision loss. Visual field testing is especially important for detecting eye conditions that progress so gradually that you may not be aware of subtle changes in your visual field.

Conditions detected during visual field testing include:

• Glaucoma

• Cataracts

• Diabetic retinopathy

• Age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

• Retinal detachment

• Macular tears

• Optic tumors

Visual field testing also finds vision loss caused by vascular conditions, multiple sclerosis, pituitary gland tumors, stroke, thyroid gland disease, and other medical conditions.

Your provider uses several types of tests to evaluate your visual field. A few examples include:

Confrontation visual test

As you look at an object in front of you, your provider holds up fingers in your peripheral vision and asks how many fingers they're holding up.

Amsler grid

The Amsler grid consists of straight horizontal and vertical lines forming perfect squares. You look at a large dot in the middle of the grid and tell your provider if any lines look wavy, blurry, or broken. It is a quick test for changes in central vision.

Automated static perimetry test

This test creates a more detailed map of your visual field. With one eye covered, you use the other eye to look into the center of a bowl-shaped instrument. As you look straight ahead, dim lights appear in different areas of the bowl. You press a button when you see a light, and the machine tracks the lights you didn't see.

If you notice changes in your visual field, call Eye Q Optique or book an appointment online today.