Optical Coherence Tomography

At Ezekiel Eyes, we scan and examine slices (or cross-sections) of the back of your eye in order to document the health of the optic nerve, vitreous, macula, retina and its blood vessels. These scans we take are used for comparison, documentation, and sometimes to diagnose certain eye conditions.

Ezekiel Eyes has state of the art anterior and posterior Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) on the premises to allow us to take these scans. Because OCT is a highly specialized form of medical imaging, taking approximately 50,000 scans per second, it can’t be done with an ordinary camera. It requires a customized camera that is mounted to a scanning system with intricate lenses and mirrors. These high-powered lenses are designed so the photographer can visualize the back of the eye by focusing light through the cornea, pupil and crystalline lens. The OCT system is able to detect early defects as small as five microns in size (equivalent to 1/20mm), which is very difficult to visualise with conventional instruments.

The patient is asked to stare at a fixation target so the eyes are still. While the photographer is taking the scans, the patient will see a series of bright flashes and a moving scanning bar. The entire process usually takes only a few minutes.

When all of the necessary scans are obtained, the data is fed into the computer system installed with specialised software to put the thousands of individual scans together to get a reconstructed three-dimensional model of the retina.