Diabetes is a systemic condition that impacts the body in many ways and can affect both your vision and eye health. As such, individuals with diabetes have unique eye care needs and should be having their eyes examined at least once per year.

Even if your blood sugar is well controlled, and you aren’t currently experiencing any other health problems, it is still important to have your eyes examined regularly. To help ensure that you can get the care you need when you need it, the friendly doctors and staff at Erie Shores Eyecare work hard to keep eye exam wait times as short as possible.

When was your last eye exam? Book your next appointment today.
Book Online

Diabetes & Your Eyes

Diabetes can be detected during a comprehensive eye exam, even before systemic symptoms and signs emerge. This is just one of the many reasons you should be going for regular eye exams.

Eye exams play a vital role in your overall health and wellbeing, especially if you have diabetes. Diabetes can impact your vision and eye health in many ways, and increase your chances of developing serious eye diseases and other vision-threatening conditions. These include:

  • Diabetic Retinopathy: Diabetes damages the small, delicate blood vessels in your retina, causing them to become weak and leak blood and fluid. Your retina may try to compensate for this by growing new blood vessels, but these are generally not robust and are also prone to leakage. As diabetic retinopathy progresses, the damaged blood vessels are no longer able to provide your retina with the oxygen it needs, leading to vision loss. During your diabetic eye exam, your optometrist will conduct a variety of tests, including ultra-widefield imaging of your retina and OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) to look for signs of retinal issues.
  • Diabetic Macular Edema: Advanced diabetes may cause fluid to accumulate under your macula, slowly causing central vision loss.
  • Cataracts: Diabetes may cause you to develop cataracts at a younger age.
  • Glaucoma: Individuals with diabetes are twice as likely to develop glaucoma as those without diabetes.

Diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma typically don’t exhibit symptoms in their early stages, which makes them difficult to detect without an eye exam. If these conditions aren’t treated, they can lead to permanent vision loss and even blindness.

Individuals with diabetes are also more likely to experience frequent prescription fluctuations, double vision, and blurry vision.

Diabetic Eye Exams

Diabetes increases your chances of developing serious eye diseases and other eye health-related problems. As such, Erie Shores Eyecare offers eye exams that are specifically tailored to address the vision and eye health needs of individuals with diabetes.

If you have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, you should have your eyes examined at least once per year, even if your blood sugar levels are stable and you aren’t currently experiencing any other eye, vision, or health-related problems.

As part of every diabetic eye exam, the team at Erie Shores Eyecare will perform a series of tests using advanced technology, including Optos retinal imaging.

Are you due for a diabetic eye exam? Book your next appointment today.
Book Online