During the month of November, we released a short series of posts on our social media about the effects of diabetes on your eyes and the importance of getting regular eye exams. We want to expand on this subject and go into a little more detail as we believe these are things that don’t come straight to mind when talking about diabetes management.
Effects of Diabetes on Eye Health
Diabetes is a disease that affects the body ability to process and store sugar. This causes an abundance of sugar in the blood that can cause damage throughout the body, including the eyes. The most common eye condition brought on by diabetes is diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy occurs when the tiny blood vessels in the eye get damaged, causing them to leak and swell. This, in turn, causes the retina to swell. Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy include blurred vision, trouble seeing at night, floaters or even a large section of vision loss in the center of your vision. If left untreated, diabetic retinopathy can lead to blindness.
The Importance of Yearly Eye Exams
During a diabetic eye exam, we do lots of testing to evaluate the health of your eyes. This includes:
- Learning about your medical history to determine if there are any medical conditions that might be affecting your eyes (such as diabetes).
- Measuring your visual acuity to determine what parts of your vision may be affected
- A refraction which determines if an eyeglass prescription is needed.
- Taking a measurement of your eye pressure.
- Dilating the pupils to assess the health of the retina, blood vessels and other ocular structures
This comprehensive exam helps us to spot changes in your blood vessels that could indicate early stages of diabetes induced eye conditions. Catching these changes early on allows us to begin treatment to preserve your sight.
