If you’re reading this and you already rely on prescription glasses or contact lenses to see properly, then you probably don’t need to be told to make an appointment with your eye doctor — you already know that your eyes change frequently and the strength of your lenses needs to be adjusted, so you probably have comprehensive eye examinations on a regular basis.
If you’re reading this and you happen to have perfect vision — congratulations! You’re one of the few people who don’t rely on eyewear or LASIK surgery to get through life without blurry vision. But that doesn’t mean that you’re exempt from needing regular eye exams at your local optometrist’s office, and here’s a short list to explain why:
- Optometrists don’t just give out prescription glasses and contact lenses; they also test your eyes for other visual problems that might not immediately affect your vision. By looking at your eyes, an optometrist can often tell if you have diabetes, high cholesterol, and even cancerous tumors in the eyes and brain — often before you notice the symptoms and have the problem diagnosed.
- It should come as no surprise that eye-specific diseases can really only be diagnosed by an optometrist. Glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy are two of the most common eye diseases, and even though they rarely show symptoms at early stages, they can lead to permanent vision loss when left untreated. Other eye problems, like cataracts, can also lead to vision loss, but can be treated very easily by an experienced eye doctor.
- As you age, your eyes slowly change as well. Just because you never needed glasses as a child or young adult doesn’t mean that you’ll have perfect vision forever. If you aren’t actively looking for the signs of worsening vision — such as blurriness when looking at objects closely/at a distance, squinting, or painful headaches — you can easily overlook these signs. With simple refraction tests, an optometrist can determine exactly which lens strength you need.
So if you haven’t seen your optometrist for an eye exam lately, what are you waiting for? The benefits of having regular eye checkups are simply too important to ignore! Find more.
