Is Your Pupil Safe to Drive?

Pupil size is particularly important in determining astigmatic and overall correction; if this changes vision significantly at night due to lighting conditions you’ll want to know before you hand over the car keys.  So who’s at risk for large pupillary changes daytime vs. night?  Those at greatest risk are people who have noticeably larger pupils in the dark, and of course all who have not been tested for a daytime vs. nighttime prescription.  Pupil size is generally larger in younger patients because our pupil shrinks in size naturally as we age.  You can look in the mirror with the lights off and while watching your own pupils (or that of your teen) turn the lights on to know if there is a big difference in pupil size (you’ll see the pupils shrink a lot or a little as the lights go on) .  Below we see the impact vision correction has on seeing one headlight at night (the point spread function in the middle is without correction and on the right is with), but in addition we see some of the measurements interpreted by your 4Sight eye doctor on the left that show if the resulting vision is different between the 3.98mm size pupil vs. 5.47mm.  This standard report is included for every patient who gets a comprehensive annual wellness eye exam at 4Sight iCare.  Call 815-676-4474 to schedule your family’s next eye exam today, and keep your family safe from night-time glare, decreased contrast, and pupil dependent vision changes that go undetected when offices cannot test for day vs. night vision.