Dr. Kayla Bechthold Blog: Do I Really Need an Eye Exam?

I have been a practicing optometrist for 27 years. It always amazes me when I see someone in their 40s or 50s coming in for their first eye exam. The usual claim is they have never had any issues with their sight, “I have perfect vision.”

Many times, an eye exam has all normal results. Sometimes, however, an eye disease is detected or a systemic illness is diagnosed. These conditions can have few or no symptoms and may be very serious. Health issues picked up during a “routine” eye exam could be vision-threatening or even life-threatening.

Let's have a look at some of the top reasons why you and your family should visit a medical optometrist at least once a year.

1. Vision Correction

Obtaining or updating prescriptions is one of the most common reasons to get an eye exam. If you wear glasses or contact lenses, you need to have your prescriptions verified regularly. Eyes change, and a prescription that is out of date and no longer accurate may be causing more harm than help.

Using contact lenses involves several risks, so having an annual eye exam is crucial to ensure your prescription is accurate and your eyes are healthy. You certainly don't want to be the person with outdated glasses from 15 years ago that you feel embarrassed to wear! Managing with those can be quite difficult if you have an eye infection. Make sure to update your glasses.

Eye exams for vision correction are still important, even if you don’t already wear glasses or contact lenses.

For children, a regular vision check is absolutely critical to make sure they are able to keep up in school—it's hard to succeed in class when the world is blurry. Homework, reading, and screen time demands increase each year for students. Learning is difficult if focusing or eye teaming are not working properly. An eye exam can pinpoint those issues and get students the help they need.

2. Eye Diseases

A simple vision test may be able to determine if your eyes are able to see correctly at a particular distance, but only a comprehensive eye exam with an optometrist will actually evaluate the health and wellness of your eyes. Whether or not you have a family history of eye diseases, getting regular checkups is important.

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes vision loss first in the periphery, then central. It is estimated that 4.2 million Americans live with glaucoma. It has no symptoms until vision loss has occurred. It cannot be detected without an eye exam. The damage from glaucoma is irreversible. The later glaucoma is diagnosed the more difficult it is to treat.

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in Americans over age 65. Diet is important to help prevent macular degeneration and to prevent it from getting worse. Certain types of macular degeneration can be treated with eye injections, and the sooner it is detected, the better the treatment results. This cannot be diagnosed without an eye exam.

Diabetic eye disease is the leading cause of blindness in Americans under age 65. Yearly eye exams are strongly recommended by primary care physicians who treat diabetic patients.

Cataracts are a clouding of the natural lens of the eye, most commonly due to age. The saying is if you live long enough, you will get cataracts, and cataracts can start in your 40s. The average age to have cataract surgery is 72. Everyone will end up with cataracts eventually, but not everyone will have them removed. When the cloudy lens is decreasing your ability to do daily tasks, like driving or night driving, and vision cannot be improved with new glasses or contacts, cataract surgery is performed.

Dry eye disease can range from being mildly annoying to life-altering. Dry eye can cause vision loss due to scarring. This is diagnosed and treated at an eye exam.

The sooner any potential condition is discovered, the more effective the treatment can be.

3. Overall health

An eye exam can also uncover serious health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, brain tumors, or even cancer. An eye exam doesn’t replace an annual physical exam with your doctor, but rather adds to the information obtained by your primary care doctor. A regular visit to the optometrist will ensure that you address any serious problems early, eliminate future threats, and treat your eyes as well as they deserve.

There are countless threats to your eyes out there. It’s important to have the state of your eyes evaluated regularly. Caring for your eyes yearly with an eye exam will minimize risks to your sight and address any recurring concerns with your vision.

Life can be busy, but you can never be too busy to take care of your eyes. Call us today to schedule an eye exam for you and your family.