How Often Should You Get Your Eyes Checked?
At Colorado Eye Surgeons, we frequently get asked the question, “how often should I get my eyes checked?” The short answer is, that it depends. Much like visiting your primary care physician, a regular eye exam is a key part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Much like other medical problems, a key part of treating diseases of the eye is early recognition. For a patient with great vision and no eye problems, typically having a complete eye exam once a year with a specialist ensures that your eyes are healthy and functioning properly.
What to Expect at an Annual Eye Exam
There are a few things to expect at your annual visit with your doctor or surgeon. First, you should expect your eye doctor to check your refraction, which measures if there is a glasses (or contact) prescription that could improve your vision. Patients could have problems with their distance vision, reading vision, or both. If a visually significant prescription is present, your eye doctor should talk to you about the options for improving your vision which usually would include glasses, contacts, or surgery. Second, the eye doctor will check the pressure in your eye to mostly screen for a disease called glaucoma. Finally, a complete exam will be done using special tools to visualize the tissue of the eye. First, a microscope is used to look at the front of the eye which includes your cornea, conjunctiva, iris, pupil, and lens. A complete exam also involves having your eyes dilated, or using a special camera, in order to view the back part of the eye. The back part of the eye includes the vitreous, retina, and optic nerve. Occasionally other tests will be included in a complete exam depending on what symptoms a patient may be experiencing.
Even if you are happy with your vision, it is a good idea to have a routine exam to screen for diseases that affect the eyes. These can include dry eyes, cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, as well as many others. An eye exam can also show signs of diabetes or high blood pressure that may be undiagnosed or poorly controlled. In addition to the elements of the exam listed above, when there is a concerning sign of possible eye disease, more tests are required.
When you visit your eye care provider, you may be told that you should return to the doctor more frequently than once a year for your eye exams. Usually, this is to closely watch signs or symptoms that are concerning for long-term damage. Additionally, these more frequent exams could be to monitor a disease process that was initially diagnosed at your first visit. Following up more frequently doesn’t guarantee that there is a problem, but is a signal that your doctor feels some part of your eye exam should be closely monitored.
While it may seem an inconvenience to regularly visit your eye care provider, it will give you the assurance that your eyes will remain healthy over the course of your life.
