Having your eyes examined annually is an important part of preventive health care. Often treatable and preventable eye and vision problems have no obvious signs or symptoms; as a result patients are often unaware that a problem may exist. Preventative treatment and early diagnosis of these problems are important for the overall health and vision of your eyes. Having your eyes examined annually is important, regardless of your age, physical health or vision.
Comprehensive eye examinations at Monkey See Family Optical in London do more than simply determine your eyeglass and contact lens prescription. These exams also help detect eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration. You might be surprised to learn that through an eye exam, other health conditions can be detected that you may not normally associate with your eyes. Diseases and conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more can often be detected in your eyes before their symptoms appear elsewhere in your body.
It’s important to get your eyes checked regularly so that diseases can be detected early and treated before they cause permanent vision loss.
For children, it can be even more important to have regularly scheduled eye exams as they grow and develop. Children, who cannot see the board, focus on a picture or follow words in a book may struggle to achieve their full learning potential and may be misdiagnosed as having a learning or behavioural disability. In fact, 80 percent of learning comes directly through vision. Vision problems can also impact their hand-eye coordination for physical activities and even impact their social development.
It’s important to remember that children rarely complain of vision problems or are even aware of them. Since they don’t know what “normal” vision looks like, most children believe everyone sees the world as they do.
What else is your Optometrist at Monkey See Family Optical checking for?
Refractive error
This includes nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism and is corrected with eyeglasses or contacts.
Amblyopia
This occurs when the eyes are turned or when one eye has a much different prescription than the other. The brain will “shut off” the image from the turned or blurry eye. Left untreated, amblyopia can stunt the visual development of the affected eye, resulting in permanent vision impairment. Amblyopia is often treated by patching the stronger eye for periods of time.
Strabismus
Crossed or turned eyes. The optometrist will check your eyes’ alignment to be sure that they are working together. Strabismus causes problems with depth perception and can lead to amblyopia.
Eye teaming problems
Even if you eyes appear to be properly aligned, it’s possible they do not work together efficiently as a team. Such binocular vision problems can cause headaches, eye strain and other problems that can affect reading and other near vision tasks.
Focusing problems
These problems can range from incompletely developed focusing skills in children to normal age-related declines in focusing ability (presbyopia) among older adults.
No matter who you are or what your age is, regular eye exams are important for seeing more clearly, learning more easily and preserving your vision for life. It’s time to book your next eye exam with Monkey See today!