Regardless of your age, physical health or current eye prescription, routine eye exams are important. Comprehensive eye examinations are not just for people with poor eyesight — they are for everyone. A lot can change over the course of a year, so you should be sure to check in with your eye doctor annually.
Here are 3 reasons why you should have your eyes checked once a year.
- The optometrist can determine or update your prescription.
This one is sort of obvious. Your eyesight is constantly changing, and it’s important especially if you already wear glasses or contacts to have your prescription updated yearly. If it’s not updated yearly, you can damage your eyes even further. This is also important for children because they don’t know what “normal” vision looks like, and they could be under-performing at school because of poor eyesight.
- Eye diseases can be detected and treated.
During a comprehensive eye exam, the optometrist also checks your eyes for common eye diseases and assesses how your eyes work together. Common eye diseases include astigmatism, glaucoma, color blindness, dry eye syndrome and many more.
- An eye exam can be used to evaluate your overall health.
Your eyes can tell a doctor a lot about your overall health; believe it or not. Eye doctors are often the first healthcare professionals to discover chronic diseases in patients such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
Be sure to check in routinely with your eye doctor so you can be your healthiest self.