Eye exams are a quick and painless way for patients to ensure healthy vision for life. A lot of eye and vision problems don’t have obvious signs or symptoms, so an eye exam is an important part of preventative care. By getting regular eye exams, patients can get early diagnosis and treatment for a variety of eye conditions. Eye exams can even detect systemic health problems such as hypertension and diabetes. Here is a list of what an eye exam can do for patients:

• Prevent Blindness: Eye exams can catch preventable blinding eye diseases such as AMD and glaucoma.
• Correct Refractive Errors: With eye exams, eye doctors can tell if a patient has refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. These refractive errors are typically corrected with contact lenses, eye glasses or refractive surgery.
• Catch Problems With Eye Focus:Eye doctors can detect if a patient has trouble with eye focus or alignment. Focus problems can affect young patients who have not completely developed focusing skills, or mature patients who suffer from age related decline in focusing because of presbyopia.
• Detect Systemic Health Problems:Eye doctors can detect systemic health issues such as high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes in patients. During an eye exam, eye doctors have an unobstructed view of the blood vessels in the eyes. This allows an eye doctor to see signs of these chronic health conditions.

Making time for an eye exam can not only protect a patient’s eyes, but also enhance a patient’s overall health. For more information, make sure to contact an eye doctor near you.

It's back to school time! Whether or not you're headed back to school this fall, it's a great time of year to make sure you're up-to-date with your regular health check-ups. Does your regular health check-up routine include an annual visit to your eye care practitioner? If not, read this post and be sure to schedule an appointment today. A routine comprehensive eye exam ensures good, healthy vision and can even help in detecting more serious medical conditions.

A typical eye exam will consist of several tests and may include checking for eye movement, peripheral vision, and color blindness; administering a glaucoma test; and determining the health of your optic nerve and retina. Routine eye exams can often detect early signs of vision conditions, allowing for faster treatments of most problems. Comprehensive eye exams can also reveal serious, and often times, hidden medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, inflammations and infections.

To find an eye care provider near you, please click here. For more information on the importance of eye exams, please click here.