Taking care of your vision can sometimes end up on the back burner as life gets busy. Unfortunately, eye conditions and vision loss are usually difficult to catch until they start affecting your sight. That is why getting routine eye exams is so essential to your eye health. Eye exams can assess your current vision and are the best way to prevent vision loss by catching any eye conditions early. That being said, you may be wondering how often you should get an eye exam. Let’s explore how frequently you need an eye exam and why you may need one more often.
Understanding Eye Exams
Eye exams are a comprehensive examination of your eye’s functionality and testing for common eye conditions. That’s why it is essential to regularly get your eyes checked. You should have your eyes checked every year for the best results. However, you may wish to have more frequent eye exams as you become older. This is because you are at a higher risk of developing eye conditions the older you are. You should also consider more frequent eye exams if you have a family history of a certain eye condition. The more risk factors you have, the more often you should get an eye exam. This is so you can catch any issues early to give treatment a higher success rate.
What Conditions Can They Catch?
Eye exams are often used as a way to catch eye conditions early. Let’s look at some conditions that eye exams can help your doctor catch.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is an eye condition where the optic nerve becomes damaged. Glaucoma leads to eye pain, central vision loss, eye redness, blurred vision, headaches, and potentially blindness.
Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy is a condition caused by damaged blood vessels in the eye. The blood vessels become damaged by increased blood sugar from diabetes. This can lead to vision loss.
Other Conditions
Other common conditions can also be caught by eye exams. These include issues like eye tracking difficulties, strabismus, and lazy eye.
Getting an Eye Exam
We hope you are better informed about how often you should get an eye exam and the conditions it can catch. Our team at the Eye Care Institute provides comprehensive eye exams to help provide the best possible eye care. Our team of doctors provides a wide range of eye services and uses eye exams as a key part of our diagnostic process. If you’re due for an eye exam, contact the Eye Care Institute at 707-546-9800 today.