Top tech - theeyes have it!

Specsavers has invested in an OCT (optical coherence tomography) scan which can help detect treatable eye conditions such as diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration sooner.

The scan, which only takes a few seconds and can cost as little as a tenner, allows an optician to look deeper into the eyes than ever before and it can help to detect glaucoma up to four years ahead of its onset.

Given that nearly half of all sight loss is preventable, an OCT scan means conditions can be managed before they get worse and can help prevent potential sight loss.

Store director Rubena Kerr says: ‘This investment gives our team the ability to enhance the services to the local community by helping to detect and manage conditions, with a level of diagnostic capability which previously would have needed a hospital visit.

“An OCT scan uses light to take more than 1,000 images of the back of your eye and beyond, looking right back to the optic nerve and creating a cross-section view.

“You can imagine it like a cake – we can see the top of the cake and the icing, but the image produced from an OCT scan slices the cake in half and turns it on its side, so we can see all the layers inside.

“It gives the optician an incredibly accurate picture of your eye and its structures, allowing them to check your eye health.”