Eye Exams Are Windows To Your Health
An eye exam can do more than track how well you see, it can also diagnose non-visual-related diseases in their early stages. Symptoms for high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and multiple sclerosis can all be screened for just by examining your eyes. By catching early symptoms of eye and other serious diseases, an eye exam is your ultimate form of preventive care.
Get your eyes examined! Did you know that your eyesight changes as you age? This is why the American Optometrist Association recommends an eye exam every one to two years for normal vision.
Only regular exams by your eye care professional can help track if your eyes have remained healthy and can diagnose "silent" age-related eye illnesses like macular degeneration and glaucoma.
Once you've had an eye exam, your eye doctor will advise you on how often you will need to come in for another exam.
What is included in an eye exam?
A basic eye exam should include:
- A review of personal and family history
- An evaluation of:
- your depth perception
- your eye coordination
- how well you see from a distance and up close
- your internal and external eye health
- Determination of prescription, if needed
What is dilation? Your eye doctor may inform you that your eyes will be dilated. Dilation allows your eye doctor to perform a thorough examination of the internal portion of your eyes by using dilating drops to increase the size of your pupils. Once dilated, the doctor can use light sources to look inside your eyes.
Dilation can take up to 30 minutes to take effect and can last for several hours. Because dilation can make your eyes more sensitive to light, it is recommended that you bring a pair of sunglasses to your appointment.
Learning Disability Or Visual Impairment?
If your child is struggling through school or having trouble reading, you may want to consider getting his or her eyes examined. While eyesight is vital for your child's learning, it is also important to know that the first seven years of your child's life are crucial to correcting any visual impairments. Any visual impairment left untreated past the first seven years can become permanent.
Why the first seven years? A child's brain undergoes a lot of changes during this time. The vision center of the brain is still developing and can be trained to fix most visual problems identified at this stage.
Get your children's eyes examined, even when they are not complaining. Because children at such a young age are less likely to complain about their eyesight, the best thing you can do is to get your child's eyes examined as early as possible. Children may start as early as 6 months-old, but you may also wait until they turn two and a half years old, when they are more able to do a subjective eye vision test.
Some treatment may require the wearing of an eye patch, which can be embarrassing for children already in school. Studies have found that children under five have an easier time complying with this treatment. So the earlier, the better.
Here is a list symptoms of you may want to watch out for:
- Poor focus on objects (after 3 months of age)
- Eyes that are not aligning
- Droopy eyelid(s)
- Watery eye(s)
- A red eye with or without discharge
- Constant squinting when reading or when trying to view a small object
- Holding books close the eyes to read them
- One eye keeps drifting out of alignment with the other
- Complaining of blurry vision
- Excessive blinking
- Headaches or frequent eye rubbing
- Family history of serious eye problems
If your child is experiencing any of the above, have an eye care professional examine his or her eyes.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is one of the important reasons to have your eyes examined once a year. It is the leading cause of blindness and everyone is at risk. While those 35 and older are more at risk to develop glaucoma, it has been diagnosed in young adults and even newborns.
Glaucoma is actually a group of eye diseases that cause damage to the optic nerve (a bundle of nerve fibers that carry information from the eye to the brain). If allowed to progress, the damage to the optic nerve can cause complete blindness.
Other than experiencing a narrowed field of vision, there are no symptoms or warnings that glaucoma has set in. However, an early diagnosis will usually prevent complete loss of vision.
For more information, visit the Glaucoma Foundation.
Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Mostly common to people of ages 60 and older, AMD is the leading cause of severe vision loss among senior citizens.
AMD is a condition where the center part of the retina (the macula) starts to break down and eventually dies. People who are affected by AMD may experience a blurry spot in the center of their vision or blank spots. Because the symptoms are usually painless, it is possible to develop AMD without knowing. Fortunately, Macular Degeneration can be diagnosed before early symptoms show.
