Naturally, eyesight gets worse with age. However, you can slow down the rate of eyesight deterioration by living a healthy lifestyle and consulting your optometrist on a regular basis. An eye exam, just like an annual physical exam, is essential. It is especially so if you have an underlying medical problem.
Eyesight problems related to age are just some of the possible causes of poor eyesight. Your ability to see clearly depends on the four components of the eye: lens, cornea, optic nerves, and retina.
The cornea is where light enters through the eye before it passes through the retina. The light is focused by the lens before it is converted into the neural signal by the retina.
After this, the optic nerves transmit the signal to the brain. Your brain will now interpret the signal in order to complete the vision process.
Why You Should Take Care of the Eye?
For a person to have good eyesight, various components of the eye need to work together. If any of these parts are not functioning well, your eyesight will be affected and you might have poor eyesight.
It is, therefore, imperative that you take care of your eye at all times. Apart from taking preventive measures, for instance, wearing eye protection, such as safety glasses or sunglasses, it is important to identify any potential problem as early as possible. This is where optometry consulting services come into play.
Optometrists are able to detect eye problems such as infections and diseases. What’s more, they can recommend eyewear to help correct any vision problems, for instance, hyperopia (farsightedness) and myopia (nearsightedness).
In some parts, optometrists are licensed to offer medications to treat some types of eye diseases.
Who Should Visit an Optometrist?
Everyone should visit an optometrist for periodic consultations. Kids need to undergo eye testing before they attain one year, at three years, as well as before entering grade school. Optometrist consultations should be done every two years after that. These consultations should continue until when a person is 60 years. Those at 60 and above should undergo an annual eye test.
Unless there’s an underlying eye problem, an optometrist consultation should not take more than 30 minutes to complete. Most problems related to vision and the tests done are meant to determine the type of corrective lenses that a patient needs to wear.
But, if your problem is due to a certain type of disease, the optometrist will refer you to an ophthalmologist for further tests and diagnosis.
How the Procedure Works
Ideally, optometrist consultations will start with a brief interview. This interview will help identify any eyesight problem and also check vision-related symptoms, like nausea and headache. Your optometrist will ask for your medical history if it’s your first visit to an optometrist.
This way, they will know what medications to prescribe you and which not to.
The optometrist will then conduct other tests, including visual acuity test. Visual acuity test involves reading some letters from a distance to evaluate your eyesight.
During the test, you’ll be required to cover your left eye and read from the right and vice versa. This test is aimed at determining how your eyes work together.
The optometrist will also be looking whether you have any difficulty identifying colors. To this end, they will conduct color blindness tests to identify the problem as well as its extent.
While conducting the test, your optometrist will not just be looking at the exterior eye surface but also the interior as well. If the optometrist discovers that you need contact lenses or eyeglasses, they’ll do a refraction test to discover the type of lenses you’ll need.
Common Vision Changes that Need to Be Checked
Even if you’ve been seeing an optometrist regularly, you should have your eyes checked if you experience sudden changes in vision.
Check with your doctor if you have blurry vision or have difficulty seeing distance or close-up objects. You should also see your doctor if you experience any pain in your eye.
Blurry Eyes
This condition can be due to a lot of things, including diabetes and low blood pressure. See your doctor as soon as possible if you experience blurry vision.
Hormonal Changes
Most often, hormonal changes are caused by pregnancy. They can also have an impact on the eyes.
Glaucoma
Symptoms vary depending on the type of glaucoma a patient has. Acute glaucoma can cause severe pain as well as blurred vision.
Sometimes, glaucoma will not be discovered until there is further damage to the eye.
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