Diabetic Eye Exams | Eye Doctor in Miami Gardens, FL

What Do Diabetic Eye Exams Help Detect?

Diabetes is a disease that can affect different parts of your body, including your eyes. It increases the risk for eye conditions such as cataracts and glaucoma. The common eye health concern for those with diabetes is the development of diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes can cause diabetic retinopathy, a condition where blood vessels in the retina get damaged.

How Can Diabetes Affect Your Eyes?

Diabetes can cause damage to blood vessels in your body. Severe damage can adversely affect your eyes, and an eye exam can help detect the damage. The retina turns light beams into electric signals in the eye. Diabetes can affect the retina located at the back of your eye.

The macula is a part of the retina that enables you to see fine details. The macula works by depending on the blood vessels that are in and behind your retina.

Uncontrolled diabetes damages those blood vessels over time, causing a condition called diabetic retinopathy. The longer uncontrolled diabetes stays, the more common this condition becomes.

Symptoms of Diabetic Eye Disease

Diabetic retinopathy may have no symptoms during its early stages. Initial symptoms can be mild, but over time, the condition can worsen and lead to blindness. Visit your doctor if you experience the following symptoms:

Blurry vision.
Floaters, dark strings, or dots in your vision field.
Empty or dark areas in your vision field.
Fluctuating vision changes.
Difficulty focusing.
Change in color vision.

Risk Factors

The longer you have had diabetes, the greater the risk you may have of developing diabetic-related eye problems. Poor management of diabetes also increases the risk of eye complications.

Smokers who have diabetes pose a risk of developing retinopathy. Diabetic pregnant women can experience diabetic retinopathy more than diabetic women who are not pregnant.

What Happens During an Eye Exam?

A diabetic eye exam is painless and not complex. Your doctor can conduct eye exams, such as:

Dilation - Your doctor puts some eye drops to allow your pupils to dilate, allowing your doctor to check the inner parts of your eye. Pupil dilation allows light to enter your eyes to make it easy to examine the retina for any eye disease.

Tonometry test - A machine will blow air into your eyes to check the pressure in your eyes. Your doctor may use a tool that gently touches your eye.

Pupil response test - Your doctor will test how your pupils react to light by flashing a flashlight into them. This test checks how light enters your eyes.

Visual acuity test - Your doctor will need you to read faraway and up-close letters to check how clear your vision is.

Visual field test - Visual field test checks how well you can see objects on your side without moving your eyes.

Eye muscle test - Your doctor checks any problems around the muscles of your eyes by moving an object and asking you to follow it with your eyes.

What to Do to Protect Your Eyes

You can protect your eyes by managing diabetes. If you are a smoker, quitting smoking can help you manage the effects of diabetes on your eyes. Habitually go for dilated eye exams annually or as often as your doctor recommends to protect and maintain your eye health. The sooner you manage your diabetes, the safer your eyes become.

For more on what diabetic eye exams help detect, visit Lifetime Vision and Eye Care at our office in Miami Gardens, Florida. You can also call (305) 902-3320 today to schedule an appointment.