The Importance of Eye Exams
Eye exams are an important part of your overall health maintenance. We often think that only children should have their eyes examined every year but it’s important to remember that adults should also have their vision examined every one to two years by an ophthalmologist in order to check for the early signs of eye disease as well as for your regular prescription check. Children’s eye exams play a vital role in ensuring normal visual development and academic achievement for kids. Since vision is closely linked to the learning process, children with undiagnosed or undetected vision problems usually have problems with their schoolwork. Children are usually oblivious to “normal” vision, so it’s not common for a child to complain about vision problems. If your child is performing poorly at school, he or she may be due for a comprehensive eye exam but consider choosing a pediatric ophthalmologist. Your doctor will check for a few things during a comprehensive eye exam, most importantly he or she will check for any visual problems or diseases that may cause vision loss. Your ophthalmologist will likely look for any refractive errors which are easily corrected with prescription glasses or refractive surgery; focusing problems that may have developed when you were a child; and eye diseases like glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. Your optometrist is usually unable to perform most of the tests listed above. Generally, when getting an eye exam with an optometrist, you are actually receiving an eye screening. The screenings are a brief vision test given by a nurse or another health-care provider. When you go to renew your license at the local DMV, they give you a vision screening to make sure there are not significant changes in the way you see. A vision screening is not a replacement for a comprehensive eye exam! Your local optometrist or ophthalmologist are the only trained physicians that can administer a comprehensive eye exam - your family physician or pediatrician is not fully trained and may miss something vital. Should your eye doctor find any visual condition or disease - do not panic. Conditions like refractive errors are easily treatable with a new prescription glasses - just steer clear of cheap eyeglasses. Other conditions may be corrected with vision strengthening exercises. If you are diagnosed with an optical disease, your ophthalmologist will put you on a path that may cure or treat it. It’s important to take your doctor’s diagnosis and advice seriously - failure to do so may result in total blindness. For your visual health, see an ophthalmologist every year for an exam. Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA.com - the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10. Disclaimer: Article submitters are solely responsible for the content of their articles. ArtiLib can't be held liable for the contents of the articles. Report Abuse | Browse By Category |
| Contact ArtiLib| Privacy Policy| Terms of Service |