A standard look inside the eye shows a small window at the very back. The Optomap captures roughly 82% of your retina at once — including the far periphery, where a large share of retinal disease actually begins. It takes a fraction of a second, nothing touches your eye, and the scan itself needs no dilating drops.
Seeing floaters or flashes? This scan is strongly recommended — it helps detect retinal tears and detachment, which begin at the very edge of the retina.
This is the heart of it. Traditional retinal photography shows a narrow window at the back of the eye. Ultra-wide-field imaging shows almost the whole thing.
Conventional retinal photography captures only the area right around the centre. Anything further out stays outside the picture — including the three problems marked in grey above, which simply never appear.
The Optomap reaches right out to the edges — where retinal tears, detachments and early diabetic changes very often begin. Same eye, same three problems, but this time they're all on the image.
Ultra-wide-field imaging has been studied extensively, with thousands of published papers and clinical trials behind it. A few findings that shaped why we recommend it to every patient:
of retinal pathology occurs beyond the reach of a standard fundus camera's field of view — out in the periphery that conventional imaging simply doesn't capture.
more retinal lesions were found when an Optomap-assisted examination was compared against traditional ophthalmoscopy alone, in research presented at the ARVO annual meeting.
detection rate for retinal lesions using Optomap, compared with 81.2% for a dilated slit-lamp lens examination, when both were measured against the Goldmann three-mirror gold standard.
more diabetic retinopathy identified by ultra-wide-field imaging than by traditional seven-field photography — and in 15% of cases the full 200° view led to a higher severity grade, meaning earlier treatment.
Sources include peer-reviewed studies indexed on PubMed Central and research presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Figures describe study populations, not guaranteed individual outcomes.
Not just to patients we're worried about — to every patient, at every age.
Retinal tears, detachments, lattice degeneration and early diabetic changes very often begin at the far edge of the retina — the part a standard view doesn't reach.
Glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration cause no pain and no early blur. By the time you notice something, damage has usually already occurred.
Each eye is captured in a fraction of a second. Nothing touches your eye, there's no puff of air, and there's nothing to feel beyond a brief flash of light.
Capturing the Optomap image doesn't require dilating drops. If your optometrist decides you also need a dilated examination that day, they'll tell you why — but the scan alone doesn't call for it.
Your image is saved and compared side by side at every future visit. Change over time is often far more revealing than any single snapshot.
We put the image on screen and walk you through it. Most people have never actually seen the inside of their own eye — it makes the whole conversation clearer.
We recommend it for everyone, but for some patients it moves from useful to genuinely important.
Retinal changes from diabetes frequently start in the periphery, and can appear well before your vision alters. Wide-field imaging finds meaningfully more of it.
If glaucoma, macular degeneration or retinal detachment runs in your family, an early baseline image is one of the most useful things you can have on file.
Higher myopia stretches the retina and raises the risk of peripheral thinning, tears and detachment — exactly the findings that sit outside a standard view.
Risk of glaucoma, macular change and retinal problems all climb with age. This is the point at which having a yearly baseline starts to really pay off.
Fast, comfortable and drop-free, which makes it much easier for a child to sit through — and gives us a baseline that will follow them for life.
This one matters. New or suddenly increasing floaters — those drifting specks and cobwebs — can be a sign of a retinal tear or detachment. Those start at the very edge of the retina, exactly where a standard view doesn't reach. If this is you, please don't wait for your next routine visit.
Your first image becomes the reference point for every visit afterwards. The sooner it exists, the more useful every future comparison becomes.
You rest your chin comfortably and look into the device at a small target light.
You see a quick flash of light, and the image is captured. That's all there is to it — nothing touches your eye.
The whole thing takes seconds per eye. Nothing touches you and there's no discomfort.
Your optometrist brings the image up on screen and talks you through what you're seeing.
Add the Optomap to your next exam for $60 — or get it included free with any specialised OCT scan.
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