The main reason that people go for the annual eye check is to ensure the health of their eyes and the overall body health. The eye is an opener to the body and can be used to detect other conditions that may be causing health problems. While a comprehensive eye exam can reveal conditions that lead to loss of vision in glaucoma, it can be used to detect other ailments like diabetes. Early signs of diabetes can be shown through the eyes.
A comprehensive eye exam can reveal the condition of the retina. The retina is the back part of the eye that senses light and sight and without which one cannot see. When you visit your eye doctor for the dilated eye exam, the retina is one of the focus areas. If the eye exam reveals swollen or leaking blood vessels, and abnormal growth of blood vessels in the retina, you are most likely suffering from diabetic retinopathy.
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Diabetic retinopathy develops as a result of weakened walls of the blood vessels in the eyes due to the prolonged exposure to high blood glucose. The longer a person has had diabetes and their greater exposure to high blood glucose the higher the risk of having diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy can be diagnosed early through symptoms that include red or white spots on the retina.
The spots are tiny sacks of blood that have knotted in the walls of the damaged blood vessels and can leak blood, or fluid into the retinal tissues. This is referred to as background retinopathy and can lead to vision blurring, but immediate treatment is not necessary. If the damage is caused near the macula, the fluid that leaks to the macula can cause a mosquito bite-like swelling called macular edema which is the most common cause of blindness in diabetic retinopathy.
When you go for an eye exam, and your ophthalmologist detects the condition early, it is possible to be corrected. In most cases, the initial changes in retinopathy are temporary, but if the damage continues, the risk increases as new abnormal blood vessel begin to develop in the retina and traverse through the vitreous. The newly formed blood vessels proliferate and attempt to increase the supply of blood and oxygen to the retina. These vessels are weak and rapture when you sneeze, cough, or while sleeping. Blood pours into the retina and suddenly blocks vision. Once the bleeding has stopped, scars form and attach to the retina posing a potential for retinal detachment.
Diabetes goes along with diabetes retinopathy. An ophthalmologist can detect early signs of diabetes retinopathy, and this means that you are at pre-diabetes stage. An eye check for diabetes will assist diabetic patients to put control measures to their conditions before it gets out of hand. At this stage, your doctor can engage you in dietary counseling, the right exercise, and treatments like the laser therapy.
An eye exam, though many people tend to overlook its need, is necessary. Through a dilated eye exam, the eye doctor can identify conditions like diabetes retinopathy which is a diabetic condition affecting the retina. It allows sufficient time to put measures that will deal with diabetes.