Like many parts of your body, keeping your eyes healthy is important. An annual eye exam can ensure your eyes health by helping to detect a number of eye health conditions (many of which offer no telltale symptoms) before they become something more serious.
Watch for signs of deteriorating eyesight.
Despite the good quality of your sight during youth, over time it’s common to see deterioration in the precision in which you see. Like many aspects of heath, the eye and its parts are subject to wear and tear. The way you use your eyes to see in everyday life is the most common cause of eye problems that require professional treatment.
As you get older and more focused in school and work, you demand from from your eyes to read, closely examine objects, etc… Years of over-focusing, make the once elastic quality of the lens more globular. This higher power lens gradually hardens, and by middle age it becomes fixed in place, so that it only is successful focusing on distant objects. While this is the most typical issue among adults who find they need glasses, there are many other problems that can arise with your sight that require the diagnosis of a trained professional.
If you answer yes to these questions you probably need an eye exam:
- Do you experience tension around the eyes, headaches or blurred vision?
- Is it difficult to read small print?
- Do you have trouble reading in low light?
- Is it increasingly difficult to make out street signs or words on a television?
- Does your vision seem to diminish at night?
- Do you experience frequent blinking?
If you answer yes to these questions you need to see an eye care specialist as soon as possible:
- Is your vision blurred at times?
- Do you see shadows where there are none?
- Are you experiencing missing areas of vision, or diminished range of sight?
- Does a grid of straight lines appear wavy, distorted or partly blank?
- Are you having trouble distinguishing colors?
- Does it take your eyes a long time to adjust after exposure to bright light?
Regular eye exams are about more than just helping you see. They’re about helping you see life at its best.
An eye exam can:
- Ensure your prescription is up-to-date
- Monitor early signs of eye disease, including glaucoma and cataracts
- Help detect other health-related conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure
Tips for a good eye doctor visit:
- If you already have a prescription or file from another office, bring it or have it faxed over to our office
- Be as honest as possible when the optometrist is asking you questions
- Explore all of your options before making any decisions
- Enjoy seeing clearly!
All examinations at Van Optical are provided by Dr. Robert Goulding, O.D.