Importance of Routine Eye Exams

When you are scheduling your preventive health visits, you may overlook the importance of regular eye exams. Many people assume that a basic vision screening will work well. However, seeing an eye doctor for a more comprehensive exam is important for your overall health. This can help you maintain the health of your eyes.
 

Myopia

Myopia is also known as nearsightedness. More children than ever are developing this condition and many from a young age. When a child becomes nearsighted early in life, their eyesight is more likely to decline quickly during childhood. This puts the children at risk of having serious or even sight-threatening eye conditions. This includes glaucoma, cataracts, and even detachment of the retina.
 

The good news is that an eye exam can assess a child’s risk of nearsightedness. When this is detected early enough, measures can be taken to control myopia. This can reduce your child’s risk of having serious eye problems later in life.
 

Glaucoma

Of the serious eye diseases out there, glaucoma is potentially one of the worst. This is because there are not many noticeable symptoms in the early stages of the disease. Nothing will be there to alert you if something is wrong.

If you fail to have a routine eye exam and get glaucoma, you will usually only notice it once you have permanent vision loss from the condition. By that time, preventing or reversing existing vision loss will be very difficult. Without the right medical treatment or surgery for the eye problem, glaucoma can cause blindness.

The good news is that a routine eye exam can detect high eye pressure, which is one of the risk factors for glaucoma. A simple vision screening will not prevent or identify glaucoma.
 

Finding Other Health Problems

The eyes are often known as the window to the soul. They can also show how your overall health is doing. If you have a serious health condition such as high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, or cancer, an eye exam may be able to detect it.
 

During your eye exam, an eye doctor will evaluate the health of your retina’s blood vessels. These are good predictors of how well your body’s blood vessels are doing. Hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol can all be determined by how the blood supply to the retina and the blood vessels look.
 

If you have diabetes, it is even more important for you to get an eye exam regularly. If you are at risk for it, such as having a family history of diabetes or obesity, it is also a good idea for you to get checked out.
 

Many Americans who have diabetes or are at risk for it may develop diabetic eye disease. This causes blindness among adults. A comprehensive eye exam can detect the early signs of this condition so your vision can be saved, and your eyes will not be permanently damaged.
 

To schedule your eye exam or for more information, please contact our eye doctor in Chesapeake, VA, today.