March is Save Your Vision Month. While you may think that having good vision means that your eyes are healthy, that may not always be the case. Getting your eyes checked regularly by an eye doctor can ensure that you not only have great vision, but that your eyes are healthy too. Getting an eye exam is the first step that you need to take to save your vision.
Older Americans are more likely to be at risk for significant vision loss or blindness from age-related eye diseases, such as cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration.
Routine eye exams are important for everyone, no matter what your age is or physical health is like. For most of you, think of it as a regular check up to ensure your eyes are healthy and that there are no early signs of eye disease. Some eye diseases have no physical symptoms early on, so getting an eye exam is the only way to detect them and treat your eyes before your vision gets affected.
Regular eye exams are a great way to track normal vision development in children. Eye exams help parents understand if their children need vision correction as well. Children with uncorrected vision face academic, social and athletic barriers. By ensuring your child has high quality eye care, you can break these barriers down.
Eye exams not only help you achieve great vision and healthy eyes, they can also help detect systemic diseases earlier. Your eye doctor can detect systemic health issues such as hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes. During an eye exam, your eye doctor has an unobstructed view of the blood vessels in your eyes. This allows your eye doctor to see signs of these chronic health conditions that you may have.
So make sure you save your vision and take the time to book an eye exam this month if you haven’t already had an eye exam this year!