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People visit their eye doctor for a variety of reasons. Sometimes you have trouble seeing, start squinting, eyes are dry, broke an old pair of glasses, or you might need a new pair or contacts. It is advised that people ages 20 to 30 should get an eye exam every two years, just to be on the safe side. After that and if you have existing conditions like diabetes, glaucoma or cataracts, you should get your eyes checked out every year. Many times an optometrist will ask if you want them to run additional tests that can detect diseases and many choose not to have those tests because they cost extra money.
Are The Additional Tests Worth The Money?
In addition to the tests that tell if your vision is 20/20, your optometrist can detect signs of other life-threatening diseases, potentially saving your life.
High Blood Pressure: A symptom of having high blood pressure is blurry vision. Your eye doctor can detect it during a routine exam. Many times your retina can be covered in blood. In some cases a person’s blood pressure can be so high that if they don’t visit their medical doctor in time they can suffer from a stroke or heart attack.
Cancer: During a routine visit, your eye doctor can ask you if you want to get your eyes dilated. This lets them see clearly inside your eyes and many people don’t like to do it especially when they drive themselves to the appointment. By dilating your eyes, your pupils widen allowing your doctor a better view of the back of your eyes. Your eye doctor can detect growths and tumors just by doing a routine eye exam. Your vision might be blurry for a couple hours, but it might be worth it if they can detect something as serious as cancer.
Diabetes: Your doctor can detect if you have diabetes, when they look in your eyes you can be leaking yellowish fluids or hemorrhaging. That kind of bleeding signals that there’s a buildup of sugar in the patient’s bloodstream and that it’s breaking down the capillaries that feed the retina. This could result into diabetic retinopathy, than can lead to vision problems or even blindness if not treated in time.
