You should always take good care of your eyes, just as you would do with any other part of your body. People generally ignore regular eye exams, assuming they only need to consult an eye care doctor from an eye care clinic if they experience vision problems.
You should schedule regular eye exam appointments to maintain your vision and overall health. This blog will specifically discuss the importance of regular eye exams.
Why Getting Eye Exams Regularly Saves Your Vision
Initial Detection of the Vision Problem
One of the significant benefits of regular eye exams is that they enable the early detection of vision problems. Several eye conditions, such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration, often do not exhibit noticeable symptoms in their early stages. When you realise you have a problem with your eyes, it may be too late to reverse the damage. Through regular eye exams, you can easily detect these issues before they progress, enabling timely treatment that prevents vision loss and further deterioration.
Correcting the Refractive Errors
Many people suffer from uncorrected refractive errors, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, or presbyopia, without even realising it. These conditions generally affect daily activities, such as driving, reading, and using usual digital devices. Through an eye exam appointment, our eye care specialists can easily detect significant refractive errors, ensuring you receive the correct prescription for glasses or contact lenses and significantly improving your quality of life.
Identify Systemic Health Issues
Eyes are unique, providing a crystal-clear view of the blood vessels, nerves, and tissues. During an eye exam, your doctor can detect signs of high blood pressure, diabetes, and even certain types of cancer. Initial detection of these health problems can often lead to quicker treatment and better outcomes.
Monitoring Changes in Vision
As you age, your vision changes naturally. When you book an eye exam appointment, it allows our eye care specialist from Salisbury Optometrist to continuously monitor these changes and adjust your prescription or treatment plan accordingly. It generally takes place for individuals who are above the age of 40 and face critical conditions like presbyopia, which becomes common among people of this age.
For ages, by visiting our eye care clinic, you can ensure that your vision remains healthy and sharp. Even try to use appropriate prescription lenses or other kinds of necessary treatments.
Preventing Eye Strains
As several people use digital screens for work, study, and entertainment, numerous individuals experience eye strain, fatigue, and computer vision syndrome. Regular eye exams enable you to identify discomfort caused by improper vision correction or if you need special lenses designed to reduce blue light exposure from screens. Our eye care specialists at Salisbury Optometrists offer expert advice on maintaining healthy screen habits and recommend exercises to reduce eye strain.
What is expected from a Regular eye exam?
Regular eye exams are crucial for maintaining healthy vision. Let us now examine what happens during a routine visit. The process appears to be painless and straightforward, but it can vary depending on your health, age, and specific concerns.
Medical History and Vision Concerns
Through regular eye exams, you can discuss your recent medical history and any specific concerns you might have regarding your vision. Our experienced professionals at Salisbury Optometrist typically ask about your past eye conditions, any family history of eye disease, your overall health, and whether you are experiencing any symptoms, such as blurry vision or difficulty seeing at night. Before you wear glasses or contact lenses, our experts will check your current prescriptions.
Visual Acuity Test
The critical test that you carry out during an eye exam is the visual acuity test, where you need to read letters on a chart. This particular test measures your ability to see from various distances and helps determine if you require corrective lenses. It is the familiar Snellen chart, with rows of increasingly smaller letters from top to bottom, that is used for this particular purpose.
Refraction Test
If our visual acuity test proves that you require corrective lenses, a refraction test will be performed immediately. During this test, our specialists from our eye care clinic use a phoropter to determine the best prescription for your overall vision. Our eye care professionals will instruct you to look at a specific chart and prescribe the exact lenses that will improve your vision and make it more straightforward.
Eye Muscle Test
To ensure that your eye muscles are functioning correctly, our experienced optometrists at our eye care clinic will conduct an eye muscle test. It consists of watching your eye movements as you follow a moving object, such as a small target or a penlight. Our experienced professionals will look out for poor coordination, weakness, and difficulty moving your eyes in a specific direction.
Pupil Dilation
Sometimes, the doctor may want to dilate your pupils to obtain a clearer view of the interior of your eye. It is done by placing special eye drops in the eyes to temporarily enlarge the pupils.
Once your eyes get dilated, our doctor can examine your retina, blood vessels, and optic nerve more thoroughly to check for signs of eye diseases and other health issues. It’s critical to note that dilates can cause light sensitivity and blurry vision for a few hours. Therefore, you should wear sunglasses and refrain from driving after the exam.
How often should an eye exam be conducted?
The frequency of eye exams depends entirely on several factors, including age, vision, and risk of eye diseases. The following are some general guidelines.
Adults
It is recommended that adults schedule an eye exam appointment with a Salisbury Optometrist at least once or twice a year, as the risk of age-related conditions such as glaucoma and presbyopia increases.
Seniors
For senior citizens, annual eye exams are recommended. They are essential for senior citizens, as they can detect diseases such as macular degeneration, cataracts, and age-related issues. Individuals with high-risk factors like diabetes and high blood pressure require more frequent examinations. Our eye care specialists can recommend a customised schedule tailored to your specific needs.
Children
Salisbury Optometrists conduct regular eye exams at an initial age, with the first being undertaken at 6 months, again before starting school, and then every 1 to 2 years.
Conclusion
Our experts at Salisbury Optometrist understand the worries and anxiety that come with an eye care problem you may face. Regular eye exams are critical for maintaining vision and overall health. Through eye exams, our experts can detect vision problems at an early stage, correct refractive errors, monitor changes within your vision, and even reveal specific health conditions.
Staying proactive and scheduling regular visits with our eye care specialists helps to ensure that your eyes remain healthy and your vision stays sharp for years to come.