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Having a regular eye exam is essential to check that your eyes are healthy and to protect you and your family’s eyesight. These exams allow your eye care practitioner to detect changes in the front of your eye so that alterations can be made to your glasses or contact lens prescription. However, your eye care practitioner also needs to look at the back of your eye, the retina, to check that it is healthy. Many eye conditions, if detected early enough, can be treated successfully without total vision loss. Half of all blindness can be prevented, yet the number of people suffering vision loss continues to increase.
Eye exams can uncover both eye conditions (eg AMD, glaucoma) and other systemic (entire body) problems eg diabetes, hypertension and risk of stroke. If detected early enough, treatment can be given to prevent any problems from getting worse.
The most common eye condition is refractive error (the need to correct the vision of the eye with glasses). The three most common refractive errors are myopia (nearsightedness) which affects an estimated 25% of the population, hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism (an uneven curvature of the cornea that causes a distortion in vision) which affects an estimated 53-63% of the population.
Presbyopia, which is the age-related loss of accommodation (resulting in the need for bifocals), starts between the ages of 38-45 years, and affects virtually 100% of the population by around 50 years. Cataracts (loss of clarity of the lens inside the eye) is estimated to affect 42% of individuals between the ages of 52-64 years. However, only about 5% of these people suffer significant loss of vision. Nearly everyone develops some degree of cataracts by age 75-85 years. Cataracts, if caught early are surgically removed, generally as an outpatient with outstanding results.
In addition, there are various retinal diseases and conditions of the eye which result in loss of vision. There are also diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure which can be discovered by examining the eyes. Side effects of drugs may also sometimes be observed during eye examinations. Again, early detection is the key factor in treatment and sight preservation.
So, protect you and your family’s vision and overall health by having a regular eye exam
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