You depend on your eyes to accomplish daily tasks big and small – driving a car, watching TV, completing your office work and playing with your kids. Therefore, eye care should be an integral part of your healthcare regimen.
The easiest way to care for your eyes include keeping your glasses or contact lenses in good condition and getting your eyes checked regularly.
“Eye exams are important because sometimes, we are able to detect certain diseases earlier. When we diagnose them early, we can intervene earlier. Early intervention is always the best,” Dr Shobana Nadarajah, an ophthalmologist, told FMT Lifestyle.
During a comprehensive eye examination, she added, eye drops are used to dilate or widen the pupil to allow more light to enter the eye. This process enables the eye doctor to get a good look at the back of the eyes and examine them for any signs or damage or disease.
During the exam, visual acuity or sharpness, depth perception, eye alignment and eye movement are tested. An eye doctor, she added, is the only one who can determine if your eyes are healthy or if you have good vision.
Those above age 50 should get their eyes checked once a year, while those below 50 are advised to have their eyes examined once every two years.
Common eye diseases
However, don’t just visit your eye doctor for a vision test. Consult an ophthalmologist if you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms:
- Blurred or cloudy vision
- Patches in the visual field
- Floaters, which are tiny specks, worm or mosquito-like structures that appear to float before your eyes
- Sudden loss of vision
- Redness of the eye
- Eye pain
- Double vision
- Circles or halos around lights
- Flashes of lights
Early treatment of eye diseases, Shobana said, was critical. Among the common eye diseases include age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.
Age-related macular degeneration is the gradual breakdown of light-sensitive tissue in the eye.
“It usually happens to those who are 50 and above. They suddenly have blurred vision, patches in their vision or see things crooked,” she said, adding that macular degeneration can lead to blindness.
Meanwhile, glaucoma is a group of diseases that damages the optic nerve. One of them is a silent disease called open-angle glaucoma.
“Patients usually develop symptoms when it’s too late, after 80% of their nerve fibres have been damaged. So, blurred vision is a very late sign or symptom. That’s why we have glaucoma screening to detect it earlier.”
Your eyes can also reveal other conditions in your body.
“The eye, they say, is the window to many diseases. We can detect uncontrolled high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus. We can also detect heart diseases if there is thinning of the optic nerve, which indicates poor control of the heart function,” she explained.
Other conditions that can be detected are sleep apnea, autoimmune diseases such as lupus or thyroid eye disease and cancer.
Shobana advised that although vision problems crop up as people age, children require eye examinations regularly to ensure they have healthy vision too.
“It is recommended that vision screening for all children be done at least once between the ages of three and five to detect amblyopia or risk factors for the disease.”
Amblyopia, or “lazy eye”, is a condition where vision is reduced because the eye and brain are not working together properly. It is the most common cause of vision loss in children, affecting two to three out of 100 children.
Another condition on the rise among children is myopia, or short-sightedness.
“Eye health is very important because it allows us to be independent, especially the older generation after the age of 50.
“We have seen patients who delay seeking treatment and once their vision becomes impaired, they are not independent anymore to go out, and meet friends. Or do simple things like driving themselves to get the groceries or food. That can lead to depression and isolation,” she added.