Why Are Eye Exams Important?

Eye exams (from a real optometrist, not an app) are critical for maintaining lifelong healthy vision.

We want to celebrate Save Your Vision Month by making an entire blog post out of the top reasons everyone should put an eye exam on their calendar. The ideal frequency of your eye exams depends on your situation, but generally we should see you at least once every other year.

Keeping Your Prescription Up-to-Date

Been squinting a lot recently? Have the leaves on the trees begun to blur into a fuzzy mass again? Has it been harder and harder to read distant billboards or small font sizes? It’s probably time to update your glasses or contact lens prescription. There’s no reason to put up with a lack of sharp detail in your life; get that appointment scheduled!

Early Detection: The Best Treatment for Eye Disease

Eye exams aren’t just about prescriptions, however. Many sight-threatening eye conditions (including glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration) are slow to develop, so the symptoms aren’t obvious to the patient until they’ve done a lot of damage. Getting regular eye exams allows us to catch an eye disease early on so that we can start fighting back.

Eye Strain Can Be a Problem for Productivity

In today’s world of ever-present digital screens, many of us spend a large portion of our days in front of a computer, or at least a smartphone. So much screentime often leads to digital eye strain. Symptoms include dry eyes, blurred vision, and frequent headaches. Obviously, all of that can make working on the computer a lot more difficult, even if it isn’t sight-threatening in the long term. We can help fight eye strain!

Vision Health Is Linked to Overall Health

Apart from updated prescriptions, combating the effects of digital eye strain, and checking for early indications of eye diseases, the eye doctor can also spot the early signs of a lot of chronic conditions. These include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and even some types of cancer. So eyes aren’t only the windows to the soul, they’re the windows to your overall health!

Basic Vision Screenings Are No Substitute for Eye Exams

School nurses often offer vision screenings at the beginning of the school year, but they aren’t able to check for much besides nearsightedness. There are many other things that can go wrong with a child’s eyesight, and an alarming number of them go untreated, leading to serious problems with their learning and development. Comprehensive eye exams with an eye doctor will catch eye problems the school nurse misses, and we recommend starting at six months old!

Celebrate Save Your Vision Month With Us!

We’re trying to get the word out on the importance of eye exams to a lifetime of healthy vision, starting with catching vision problems in children before they can impact their schooling and going all the way to stopping age-related eye diseases in their tracks. If it’s been a long time since your last eye appointment, now is a great time to schedule the next one!

We’re excited to see you at our practice!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.