Find a store Log in Re-order contact lenses Glasses Contact lenses Eye health Hearing Home visits Offers Book appointment Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Scan Interested in having an OCT scan? You’ll find lots of information here including how to book it alongside your eye test. This service is currently available in 900 of our stores, with more rolling out each month. Book your scan OCT scans are Good Housekeeping Reader Recommended What is an OCT scan? An optical coherence tomography scan (commonly referred to as an OCT scan) helps us to view the health of your eyes in greater detail, by allowing us to see what’s going on beneath the surface of the eye. Imagine it like a cake – we can see the top of the cake and the icing using the 2D digital retinal photography (fundus camera), but the 3D 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. Our opticians can then map out and measure the thickness of these layers to get an even clearer idea of your eye health. OCT scans can help detect sight-threatening eye conditions earlier. In fact, glaucoma can be detected up to four years earlier. You may need to have a further assessment if: OCT is separate to an eye test. An eye test checks your eye health as well as how well you can see. Part of that often involves taking an image of the back of the eye (digital retinal photography), but an OCT scan takes this a step further, allowing your optician to look even deeper into your eyes and the structures within it. Essentially, an OCT scan gives your optician a clearer idea of your eye health when testing your eyes. Traditional fundus test image OCT scan image Why do I need an OCT scan? OCT scans are recommended for people aged 25 or over, who want to know more about their eye health, or those who have diabetes, glaucoma, or have family history of eye disease. Even if your vision and eye health are perfectly fine, we still recommend an OCT scan with every eye test. It’s really useful for your optician to have a baseline image on file, so they can monitor any changes over time. It’s the same as when we take an image of the back of your eye with digital retinal photography. So the next time you come in for an eye test, your optician can compare your images from your last visit as well as comparing measurements to averages and might spot even the tiniest change in the eye’s structures. This could help indicate the early signs of an eye health condition like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration before you have any symptoms. This means that conditions like these can be managed before they get worse and can help prevent potential sight loss. That’s a pretty good result for just a quick scan. How much does an OCT scan cost? Because OCT scans are separate to your eye test, an additional charge may apply so please speak to your local store about this when booking your appointment. Does it take longer than a regular eye test? An OCT scan takes a matter of seconds and your optician will go through the results with you during your eye examination. Book your scan What is an OCT scan used for and what conditions can it help to detect? OCT scanning is great at confirming that your eyes are healthy and can be repeated over time for comparison. This makes it particularly useful for detecting potentially sight threatening conditions that generally don’t have any symptoms until they start to have an impact on your vision. Many of these conditions form at the very back of the eye, and OCT allows your optician to identify subtle changes over time, such as changes in the vitreous (the jelly-like substance that fills the eye), retina (the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye), macula (an area at the centre of the retina responsible for our central vision) and the optic nerve (transmits light impulses to the brain to produce the images we see). These include: Glaucoma Diabetic retinopathy Detached retina Age-related macular degeneration Macular hole In fact, an OCT scan can help to detect glaucoma up to four years earlier than traditional methods. How does optical coherence tomography work? Taking just a few seconds, an OCT scan uses light to take over 1,000 images of the back of your eye and beyond, looking right back to the optic nerve. A layered image is created that gives us an incredibly accurate picture of your eye and its structures, allowing us to check your eye health. The images will then be stored so we can note changes over time. I have a diabetic check annually; do I still need an OCT scan? Yes – while both the diabetic screening check and OCT involve taking images of the back of the eye, there are significant differences. Diabetic checks involve a fundus picture – this is an image of the surface of the back of the eye (the retina) also known as digital retinal photography. OCT images allow us to look at the many layers beneath the surface of the retina, which helps us to spot changes to eye health earlier than just looking at the surface. OCT scans also help in the detection of a range of other eye problems, not just those that are linked to diabetes. FAQ’s Does it hurt? I’m quite young, is this for older people? I have my eyes checked at the hospital – should I still have this? Is it like having an MRI scan? Are there any OCT eye test side effects? What is the cost of an OCT scan? Eye conditions that OCT can help detect Find out more about what this exciting tech does. Learn more OCT and glaucoma An OCT scan is an important part of diagnosing glaucoma, a common eye condition. Learn more Eye health Find more information and advice about various eye conditions. Learn more Browse Glasses Designer glasses Contact lenses Hearing aids Offers Gift vouchers Services Book an eye test OCT scans in store Eye tests at home Eyecare at work Book a hearing test Hearing tests at home Information for GPs COVID-19 Information Keeping you safe in store Glasses fogging up advice How we're supporting the community Use of PPE in store Your new in store experience About About Specsavers Contact us Hindsight report Our year in numbers 2020/21 Careers Sitemap Specsavers promise © Specsavers 2021 Legal policies Privacy policy International sites Modern Slavery Act 21.10.3 To provide you with a better service, we use cookies on our pages. 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