Many people neglect their eyes. It’s not necessarily seen as one of the most important health concerns, but actually eye health is imperative. A wise person once said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. However, the eyes are also our means to making sense of the world. Regular eye exams are an important part of health maintenance for adults and children alike, and here is why.
What do Eye Exams Check For?
When you go for an eye exam, the eye doctor is not purely looking for problems that can be fixed with glasses or contact lenses, there are many other issues that you might not have even heard of that can affect the health of your eyes.
Eye Diseases
There a many eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma that actually have no symptoms at all in the beginning stages. However, the diseases can be picked up early by an eye exam. This is highly important because the earlier the disease is detected, the faster and more efficiently it can be treated. If diseases such as these are left untreated, then the consequence could be permanent vision loss.
Other Diseases
There are also some other diseases whose symptoms affect eye health, such as diabetes. In many cases, these diseases can be identified by an eye doctor. For example, in the case of diabetes, small blood vessels can leak causing bleeding in the eye. Vision loss can also be caused by swelling of the macula. An eye exam is needed to detect these problems and their causes.
Amblyopia
This is a serious problem that means one eye has an extremely different prescription to the other eye. When this happens, the brain will actually completely shut off the eye that is more damaged. People may not notice this issue because the good eye will compensate. However, when this is left untreated visual development may be stunted in the affected eye, resulting in permanent vision impairment.
Strabismus
This can actually be considered as a precursor to amblyopia when left untreated. The problem here is that the eyes are crossed or one is turned slightly. A full eye exam will examined the alignment of the eyes in order to check that they are working together. People who suffer with this problem will find that their depth perception is limited. It is important that this is diagnosed early to prevent the issue developing into something more sinister.
For these reasons and more, you should schedule regular eye exams with your eye doctor to protect your visual health.