The Benefits of Regularly Seeing an Eye care professional

If there is one thing you can’t live without, what would it be? Imagine a life without a smartphone or a life without a TV? Our lives rely so much on technology for almost anything! Technology is so amazing that we’re addictively drawn to it. Unfortunately, the blue light that your beloved smartphone emits is not good for your health, specifically your eye health. We’re not saying you should stop using your phone, but we’re saying you should pay more attention to vision care. According to eye health experts, more and more people worldwide are complaining of vision problems. The numbers of patients eye experts see every day have doubled in numbers over the last decades.

Studies reveal that vision problems can be owed to the constant use of smartphones and other gadgets, which people use all throughout the day. To make sure your eye health stays in tiptop shape, you should visit your optometrist regularly for a routine exam and assess your eyesight. These appointments will allow your eye doctor to check your sight and see if you need eyeglasses or contact lenses to help with your vision problems, and they may also provide treatments if you are diagnosed with eye disease.

What are the Benefits of Regularly Eye Exams?

#1 Eye Problems are Detected Early

One of the most significant advantages of visiting an eye doctor is that potential health problems are detected before they even happen or stop them from becoming worse. Besides diabetes, visiting eye doctors allows them to identify other health problems such as high blood pressure, eyelid skin cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and brain tumors.

Hypertensive patients usually have blood vessels at the back of their eyes that look bent or leaking. The only way to check them is if you visit your optometrist. In addition, you may be given medications that will help normalize your blood pressure.

As for eyelid skin cancer, did you know that your eyelids are extra sensitive to UV rays compared to other parts of your face? It’s also one of the first areas in your body that get affected if you have skin cancer. During a visit to your optometrist, they can quickly check the affected area and provide you with treatments to prevent the cancer cells from spreading to other parts of your body.

Did you know that people who have rheumatoid arthritis have dry eyes? During an eye exam, your optometrist will be able to detect dry eyes and refer you to a rheumatologist for treatment.

Is it possible to detect brain tumors based on an eye exam? It may sound absurd, but you’ll be surprised to know that an eye exam can indeed detect a brain tumor. Patients who have a brain tumor usually have a swollen and inflamed optic nerve.

#2 Vision Loss Is Identified

When you’re always using electronic devices, sooner or later, you’ll need glasses. Glasses help correct vision problems. Unfortunately, more often than not, people do not realize they need corrective glasses because they are unaware of their vision problems.

For example, you may be unintentionally reading the newspaper too close to your face, or you have an enormous TV set that you won’t know if you can read from afar or not. The bottom line is you should visit your optometrist to have your eyes checked because if your vision is compromised, it will put you in danger, like when you’re driving on the highway or when you’re reading medication labels or prescriptions.

#3 Accurate Diagnosis of Eye Diseases

Although the Internet offers helpful information, it should not take the place of your eye doctor. So, don’t Google your symptoms, diagnose yourself, and self-medicate. You’re only doing more harm than good. When you visit your eye doctor regularly, they’ll be able to detect eye diseases before they worsen. Keep in mind that early detection will significantly lower your risk of vision loss. In addition, an eye exam will help determine if you need vision care or eye treatment.

Regular checkups put you at an advantage because your eye disease will be treated right away while the damage can still be reversed. When it’s discovered too late, vision loss may be inevitable.

#4 Receive Regular Treatment

There are severe cases of eye problems that require patients to go through surgery just to restore their eyesight. Unfortunately, after the surgery, these patients no longer consider eye exams as a priority. As a consequence, the majority of those patients experienced retinal detachment following surgery.

Takeaway

How often should you see your eye doctor? To keep your vision in great shape, adults between the ages between eighteen and sixty are required to undergo a comprehensive eye exam at least once every couple of years. Individuals who are sixty-one years old and older should have yearly exams.