A proper eye exam, with time to understand your prescription, check your eye health and work out what your glasses actually need to do.
40 minutes · Retinal photography included · Spectacle eye exams only.
We don’t fit, prescribe or check contact lenses.
An eye exam should do more than produce a new prescription. We take the time to understand what has changed, check the health of your eyes and explain what we find. Just as importantly, it gives us the starting point for working out what your glasses actually need to do.
Your eye exam includes the important clinical bits: checking your vision, measuring your prescription, assessing the health of your eyes, checking eye pressure, and taking retinal images so we can look at the back of your eyes in detail.
We’ll also ask about the things that affect your actual glasses: work, screens, driving, reading, headaches, hobbies, old glasses you loved, old glasses you hated, and anything that’s changed since your last test.
And yes, there will still be some “better one, or better two?”
Sorry. That bit survived modernity.
A prescription tells us what your eyes need. The rest is where Doctor Oculus comes in.
We look at how your glasses need to work in real life. That might mean a simple pair of single vision glasses, carefully fitted varifocals, occupational lenses for screen work, something re-lensed into a frame you already own, or a handmade frame designed around your face.
Sometimes your prescription has changed and your old glasses need updating. Sometimes it’s stable, which is great. That means we can move straight to the fun bit: choosing something because it suits you, fits beautifully, feels good, and you actually fancy wearing it.
Your eye exam happens in the same place as the workshop, the lens fitting, the frame adjustments, the repairs, the re-lensing and the handmade eyewear. That matters more than it sounds like it should.
If your prescription is simple, we won’t make it complicated. If your prescription is awkward, your varifocals have never quite behaved, your old glasses keep annoying you, or you use your eyes in a very specific way, we can get into the details.
We’re not trying to be a hospital. We’re an opticians. A very hands-on one.
Once we know what your eyes need, we can start working out what your glasses need to be. We’ll look at how you use your vision, the frames that suit you, the lens design that makes sense and the measurements needed to make the finished pair feel as natural as possible.
The eye test is the start of the glasses. Once we know what your eyes need, we can start thinking about what your glasses need to be. How you work, drive, read and use screens all influence the frame, lenses and measurements that will make the finished pair feel natural.
We use advanced high-resolution retinal imaging to capture detailed photographs of your eye’s internal structures, allowing early detection of eye conditions. We also use modern air-puff-free tonometry to measure eye pressure comfortably, alongside digital refraction equipment for precise prescription measurements.
Whilst we’re based in Digbeth, Birmingham, patients regularly visit us from Solihull, Harborne, Moseley, Edgbaston, Sutton Coldfield, Kings Heath, and across the West Midlands. Our central location offers excellent transport links and convenient access from major routes, making us easily reachable for those seeking quality independent optometry.
Excellent! Stable is good. There’s probably no better time to upgrade your eyewear than when we know everything is ticking along nicely.
Whether you fancy a better frame, proper prescription sunglasses, handmade eyewear, or lenses tailored more closely to the way you actually use your eyes, we can get on with that without pretending there’s some medical urgency. You’re allowed to want nicer, better-working glasses without an optometrist discovering a microscopic change in your prescription first. Not every new pair of glasses has to begin with a crisis.
Yes. Retinal images are included in the eye exam so we can look at the back of your eyes in detail and keep a useful record for future checks. We also check eye pressure and carry out other tests where needed, including visual field checks when they’re relevant.
Yes, please. Bring the ones you wear, the ones you don’t wear, and especially the ones that never quite worked. They’re useful evidence.
Yes, but you might not need an eye exam.
If your prescription is recent and you want help choosing glasses, fitting lenses, re-lensing an existing frame, or working out what will actually suit you, book a Bring Your Own Prescription appointment instead.
No. Doctor Oculus is a spectacle practice. We don’t fit, prescribe, supply or check contact lenses. If you wear contacts, you’re still welcome to book a spectacle eye exam and get some magnificent glasses from us, but you’ll need a contact lens practitioner elsewhere for your contact lenses.