Taking care of your eye health is crucial to make sure your eyes and vision remain in optimal health. That said, despite almost 60% of people wearing glasses, many can’t commit to going to an eye doctor routinely.
Recently, MIT researchers worked with EyeQue to develop a device that helps people regularly check their vision. The device is attached to the front of your smartphone to help correct your vision from home. However, even though this helps make vision maintenance and correction more accessible for people, it isn’t a replacement for seeing an actual optometrist.
Going to an eye doctor offers you a more accurate and comprehensive exam to assess the full health of your eyes. In this post, we’ll explore critical reasons for getting regular eye exams for eye care:
Correct vision issues
Given the rampant use of digital devices today, vision problems are more common than ever. However, for the best chance at recovery, it’s important to treat them early. To do so, eye exams are often administered to help prevent or reduce vision loss by correcting vision issues, usually using prescription eyewear. If you feel your vision going blurry or fuzzy, for example, it’s always best to consult an eye doctor to correct this and prevent disruption in your daily activities.
In 2022, the FDA approved the Visibly Digital Acuity Product, a web-based, self-guided software applicated for adults aged 22 to 40 to perform a self-test for visual acuity at home. Your eye care provider or eye doctor can use results from the application to help provide supportive recommendations. Like the EyeQue device mentioned in our introduction, however, the software isn’t meant to replace an eye exam from a licensed medical professional fully.
Identify serious eye conditions
Having routine eye exams can also help your eye doctor detect serious eye conditions, including cataracts, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration — the leading cause of vision loss in adults over 60. An eye doctor would also be able to see signs of eye diseases that may be genetic, such as eye malformations and retinal degeneration, which can cause blindness. Your ophtometrist’s access to family medical history can help identify these problems as early as possible.
Fortunately, nowadays, it’s very easy to book sophisticated exams to check for such conditions. Case in point, LensCrafters offers comprehensive eye exams with their trusted partners, which you can simply book online. As mentioned above, these comprehensive eye exams can help detect early signs of eye disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Target Optical’s eye exams can also help find the right high-quality lenses to support your vision needs, such as reducing glare, scratches, and smudges.
Mitigate possible risks
Finally, even if your eyes and vision feel healthy, you could still have underlying health problems and not know. Many eye diseases don’t have any symptoms or warning signs unless you go for a dilated eye exam. At the same time, getting older, aside from affecting your vision, also increases your risk of some eye diseases.
So, even if you are not suffering eye pain, you may still be at risk for serious health conditions — which your eye doctor can identify and help prevent. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, eye exams can also detect signs of serious health conditions, such as brain tumors through changes to the optic nerve, or diabetic retinopathy through the eye tissue. So it’s always worth investing in your eye health by going for your annual eye exam — as doing so helps you look out for your overall health too.
