Protect Your Vision with Yearly Eye Exams

Living with Diabetes

Protect your vision with yearly eye exams!

If you are living with diabetes, taking extra care of your eye health is extremely important.

Did you know?

• A person with diabetes has a 25-times-higher risk of blindness than someone without diabetes.
• 90% of vision loss caused by diabetes can be avoided with early detection and treatment.

Getting a diabetic eye exam every year is highly recommended because these screenings can detect eye disease long before you may have any symptoms. For these exams, also called dilated-eye exams, eye drops enlarge your pupils so your doctor can examine the back of your eyes. They will look for swelling of the retina, leaking blood vessels, nerve damage, cataracts, and other eye diseases more common with diabetes.

In addition to diabetic retinopathy, which is damage to the blood vessels in the retina and causes the most blindness in those with diabetes, there are other eye diseases that impact people with diabetes at a higher rate:

• Cataracts: people with diabetes are 2 to 5 times more likely to develop cataracts and develop them at younger ages.
• Open angle glaucoma: having diabetes doubles your risk of this form of glaucoma.

In addition to getting annual diabetic eye exams, managing your blood sugars is essential. Uncontrolled blood sugars not only increase your risk of eye diseases but can also cause problems with your kidneys, heart, and circulatory system. Speak with your primary care provider or endocrinologist if you are having difficulty managing your blood sugars with your current treatment plan.