Why Regular Eye Exams Are Essential If You Have Diabetes

While regular eye exams are important for everyone, they are even more important for diabetics. This disease can have a profound affect on your eye health, even leading to permanent blindness, so it’s vital your eye doctor gives your eyes a comprehensive examination at least once a year to detect any diabetic eye conditions or complications early.

What Eye Problems can Diabetes Cause?

Diabetic Retinopathy:

This condition occurs as a result of high levels of glucose building up in the blood vessels of the eye, reducing blood flow to the retina and leaking blood and other fluids into the retinal tissue. Symptoms occur gradually and include floaters, blurred vision, fluctuation of your vision, dark areas in your vision and vision loss. This is a very serious condition which causes irreversible damage, but often goes unnoticed because the symptoms build up slowly over time, so early diagnosis is important.

Your eye doctor will be able to recognize and diagnose it rapidly and develop a treatment plan that will help slow down your vision loss. In serious cases, known as proliferative diabetic retinopathy, scatter laser treatment and a vitrectomy may be recommended to seal off leaking vessels and remove blood and fluid from the eye.

Diabetic Macular Edema:

This condition is similar to diabetic retinopathy, except that it affects the macular of the eye rather than the retina. This condition ranges from mild cases to severe, permanent vision loss, so it’s important to have an early diagnosis.

Symptoms include blurred central vision and difficulty seeing details clearly, for example, fine print or recognizing someone’s face. This condition can be treated through focal laser surgery, sealing off leaking vessels and removing excess fluid from the eye.

Temporary Blurring:

Blood sugar levels affect the functioning of all organs and the eyes are no exception. If your blood level changes significantly (or you are having uncontrolled blood sugar changes), you can experience temporary blurriness of your vision which comes and goes throughout the day. For many people, this issue goes away once their blood sugar is under control.

Cataracts:

A cataract occurs when the lens of the eye becomes clouded, reducing the light that can enter the eye and resulting in ‘foggy’ vision. This is a common condition that affects many people as they age, but diabetic patients are at risk of experiencing it at a younger age. Treatment for this condition includes a safe, quick surgical procedure where the lens is replaced, resulting in clear vision.

Fast, Professional Eye Exams for Diabetics in Miami

At Eyes on Brickell, we pride ourselves on providing high quality bilingual eye care through our experienced optometrist and state-of-the-art technology. Whether you have questions about your eye health as a diabetic or would like a comprehensive eye test, Our Team is happy to assist and advise you.

The health insurance providers we currently accept at our vision center included Medicare, Vision Service Plan (VSP), Opticare, Eye Med Vision Care and many more. To find out more about our practice, please contact us today at one of our locations in Brickell, Miami.