Diabetic Eye Exams

Cataracts are a fairly common eye condition that many of us will develop as we age. As our eyes get older, their lenses become denser and less flexible, forming a milky haze that can impair vision. Depending on the severity of your condition, your optometrist may recommend you wear contact lenses or glasses, or they may suggest you have surgery to replace the lens of your eyes and remove your cataracts.

Diabetes can increase your chances of developing cataracts or cause your cataracts to develop more quickly.

Open-angle glaucoma is the most common form of glaucoma and causes the drainage canal that allows the fluid inside your eye to drain to become blocked. Since the fluid isn’t able to drain away, the eye’s intraocular pressure (IOP) may rise, putting pressure on the optic nerve. This pressure eventually damages the nerve, leading to vision loss.

Patients with diabetes are twice as likely to develop this condition than patients without diabetes. Open-angle glaucoma is particularly dangerous because patients rarely exhibit symptoms until permanent vision loss has already occurred. Regular eye exams allow your optometrist to detect this disease in its early stages, allowing them to manage your glaucoma before it causes permanent damage to your vision.

Diabetic retinopathy is an eye disease that is caused by diabetes. Blood with high sugar levels is thicker than blood with ordinary sugar levels, making it more likely to cause blockages in the delicate blood vessels in your retina.

When these blood vessels become blocked, the body responds by quickly growing new blood vessels to provide a workaround. However, these vessels are thin and delicate and frequently break, causing them to leak fluids into your retina and damaging your vision.

Diabetic macular edema, also known as DME, develops when diabetic retinopathy is left untreated. The fluids that leak from the broken retinal blood vessels can accumulate, causing the retina to swell and distort vision.