Diabetes and Eye Health
Learn more about eye health and diabetes.
As a person with diabetes, your annual eye exam is the best way to determine if your blood glucose (blood sugar) levels are affecting the health of your eyes. Even if your vision is completely normal and your eyes feel fine, you could be experiencing the earlier stages of a diabetes-related eye condition.
The sooner you catch diabetes-related eye conditions, the sooner they can be treated to prevent them from getting worse.
Your annual eye exam is one of the best ways to protect your eyes and help prevent future vision loss or blindness.
Dr. Paul Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute (NEI), says, “Only about half of all people with diabetes get an annual comprehensive dilated eye exam, which is essential for detecting diabetic eye disease early, when it is most treatable. Newer and better treatments are available for the first time in decades, making early detection even more important.”
With no early symptoms, diabetic eye disease—a group of conditions including cataract, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy—can affect anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes are at higher risk for losing vision or going blind from diabetes.
“More than ever, it’s important for people with diabetes to have a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once a year. New treatments are being developed all the time, and we are learning that different treatments may work best for different patients. What hasn’t changed is that early treatment is always better,” says Dr. Suber Huang, chair of the Diabetic Eye Disease Subcommittee for NEI’s National Eye Health Education Program (NEHEP) and member of the NEI-funded Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net). “There has never been a more hopeful time in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy,” he adds.
Remember, if you have diabetes, make annual comprehensive dilated eye exams part of your selfmanagement routine. Living with diabetes can be challenging, but you don’t have to lose your vision or go blind because of it. To help friends and loved ones reduce their risk.
Remember, if you have diabetes, make annual comprehensive dilated eye exams part of your selfmanagement routine. Living with diabetes can be challenging, but you don’t have to lose your vision or go blind because of it. To help friends and loved ones reduce their risk
EYE EXAMINATION
An eye exam can tell you a lot about your general health. That’s why it’s important to get regular eye checkups even if you don’t wear glasses or contact lenses. Take, for example, Francis, who was surprised when his doctor asked him if he had a history of high blood pressure. “Being an athletic 20-something, I thought he was nuts,” Francis says. “But I went for a general checkup anyway, and he was right: I needed medication.” Through some lifestyle changes, Francis was later able to go off the medicine. But without that comprehensive eye exam, he never would have known his blood pressure was an issue.
Learn more about why eye exams are important, and what to expect at your appointment. We’ll also explain the difference between an optometrist and an ophthalmologist, and what to do if you don’t have vision insurance.
If you don’t have any symptoms or vision problems, doctors recommend getting regular eye exams based on your age:
You’ll want to have your eyes checked more often if you wear glasses or contact lenses, have a family history of eye disease, or have a chronic condition that puts you at risk for eye disease, like diabetes.
For kids under age 3, a pediatrician can look for common childhood problems like a lazy eye or crossed eyes. It’s a good idea to have your kids’ eyes checked before entering first grade. After that, if your family doesn’t have a history of vision problems, eye exams every one to two years should be enough.
In a comprehensive exam, your eye doctor will check for vision problems and eye diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts. You’ll be asked about your overall health, family medical history and any medicines you take.
To test the sharpness of your vision at a distance and up close, you’ll read letters from an eye chart. Other tests will check your 3D vision, peripheral (side) vision and color perception. Shining a small light into your eye, the doctor will observe your pupils and eye muscles. A magnifier will allow her to better view the structures of your eyeball.
Finally, the doctor will test for signs of glaucoma, either by directing a puff of air at your eye or using a device that briefly touches the surface of your eye. Neither method causes any pain or lasting discomfort.
In a comprehensive eye exam, a colour blindness screening checks your colour vision in order to rule out colour blindness. In addition to detecting colour vision deficiencies, colour blindness tests can also alert your eye care professional to potential eye health problems that may affect your colour vision.
A refractive exam is the test that your eye doctor or optician uses to determine your exact glasses prescription. During a computerised refraction, your doctor puts an instrument called a phoropter in front of your eyes and shows you a series of lens corrections. Then they will ask you which one of the two lens choices looks clearer. The refraction determines your level of hyperopia (farsightedness), myopia (nearsightedness), astigmatism and presbyopia.
