When did you last have a routine eye exam? Eye exams, like dental exams, are an important part of our preventative healthcare, yet many people put them off feeling that they just aren’t a priority. This is especially true of people who aren’t currently experiencing any issues with their eyes or vision and feel like visiting their eye doctor is an unnecessary expense and use of their time. Nevertheless, we recommend that all adults undergo comprehensive eye exams every year. This is because close monitoring of the health and condition of your eyes really is the best way to preserve your long-term vision.

 

Comprehensive Eye Exams Can be Used to Detect Sight-Threatening Diseases

The health of our eyes is vitally important for us to maintain good vision, and there are lots of eye diseases that can threaten our sight if they aren’t treated quickly. Comprehensive eye exams are important because they give your eye doctor the opportunity to detect them early. This is invaluable since many eye diseases don’t cause symptoms until they have already started to damage your vision.

 

Some of the eye diseases that can be detected at comprehensive eye exams include:

 

Glaucoma: a condition which occurs when pressure builds inside the eye, causing damage to the optic nerve that permanently affects your vision.

Cataracts: a condition that occurs when the natural lens of the eye becomes cloudy.

Age-related macular degeneration: a slow-developing condition that occurs when the cells in a part of the eye called the macula start to deteriorate.

Keratoconus: an uncommon condition characterized by the thinning and bulging of the cornea.

Cancer: affecting the eye itself or the skin around the eyes.

 

Experts estimate that around 50% of vision loss is actually preventable, and one of the best ways of doing this is by attending regular comprehensive eye exams so that the health and condition of your eyes can be closely monitored.

 

Comprehensive Eye Exams Can be Used to Maintain Your Vision

It’s not just eye diseases that can affect how well you can see. Refractive eye errors are the most common reason why people wear glasses or contact lenses, or why they choose to undergo laser vision correction. These occur when the cornea, which is the clear, domed lens covering the front part of the eye, doesn’t refract light correctly through the eyes. When this happens, it causes blurred vision. Nearsightedness, also known as myopia, is where people can see nearby objects clearly, but distant objects appear blurred. Hyperopia is the opposite. There are also other refractive eye conditions including astigmatism and presbyopia. A visual acuity test is a normal part of a comprehensive eye exam. This test determines how well you can see at different distances and will tell your eye doctor if you would benefit from prescription lenses.

 

Comprehensive Eye Exams Can Detect General Health Problems Too

Many people are surprised to learn that comprehensive eye exams can actually reveal information about your general health, as well. This is because many health conditions can directly affect the structures of the eyes. Some of the health problems that can be identified during a comprehensive eye exam include:

 

• Diabetes
   

• High blood pressure
   

• High cholesterol
   

• Cancer
   

• Thyroid disease
   

• Multiple sclerosis
   

• Lupus
   

• Rheumatoid arthritis
  
   

Detection of these issues can ensure that you get prompt support from medical professionals before your health conditions cause complications in your day-to-day life.

 

Learn more about the importance of comprehensive eye exams, contact Clarke EyeCare in Wichita Falls, TX at 940-394-0400 to book an appointment.