Have you not seen your eye doctor in a while? Now may be a great time for an appointment.
Even when your eyes are healthy, you should still have regular eye exams, especially if you need glasses or contacts or are over 40. When you have your eye exam, you should also take the time to talk to your ophthalmologist and bring up any questions and concerns you may have about your vision or eye health.
Can’t think of any specific concerns or questions? Never fear— you can still get the most out of your visit by asking 6 of the best questions to ask your eye doctor:
1. What Can I Do About My Dry Eyes?
Dry eyes are prevalent, especially when it’s colder. Even in Florida, the air can be cooler and drier during winter.
These small changes can affect your eye health. Your environment can significantly impact your tear production.
Still, it can have a more considerable effect when a pre-existing condition, like dry eye syndrome, worsens the symptoms.
If your eyes start feeling drier, you should discuss this with your eye doctor. They can assess your tear quality and determine if you have dry eye syndrome.
Even if you’re only suffering from temporary dryness, they can recommend home remedies and lifestyle changes to help ease your symptoms. If these changes don’t help, they can also recommend professional treatment so you can get the relief you need.
2. Am I at Risk for Eye Conditions?
Eye conditions are very common, especially as you get older, making eye exams more critical as you get older. But your age is only one factor in your risk for eye conditions.
Your medical history and family medical history is also vital in determining your risk for eye disease, as is your drug and tobacco use, amongst other factors. Be open and honest with your eye doctor and disclose all your medical information so they can accurately assess your risk.
If they have all the relevant information, they’ll be able to tell you your risk for different eye conditions. Knowing your risk for eye conditions and which specific conditions you’re at the highest risk for will help you stay aware of the signs and symptoms of those diseases.
But you should know that many eye conditions, like glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy, don’t present symptoms in the early stages. This is why regular eye exams are so important.
Your eye doctor can detect, diagnose, and recommend treatment for these eye conditions before they cause significant damage to your vision.
3. How Do I Lower My Risk For Developing Eye Conditions?
If you’re at high risk for certain eye conditions, you’ll want to know how to lower your risk. This is something else your eye doctor can tell you.
Chances are, their advice will include simply leading a healthy lifestyle. Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and tobacco use contribute to your risk of developing certain eye conditions.
Curbing these risk factors through a healthy diet and exercise can lower your risk for these eye conditions. However, your eye doctor can give you more specific advice, like different vitamins and nutrients you should be getting more of in your diet.
But the best thing they can do to help lower your risk for vision loss from eye conditions is to recommend regular eye exams.
4. How Often Should I Have Eye Exams?
If you wear glasses or contacts to correct a refractive error, you should see an eye doctor at least once a year to update your prescription, regardless of age. To ensure your eyes stay healthy, you should see an eye doctor for an eye exam annually, even if you have healthy eyes.
The higher your risk for eye disease, the more often your eye doctor will want you to visit. If your eyes are healthy, you only need to see an eye doctor at least once every two years once you turn 40 and once every year in your fifties.
But to ensure your eyes stay healthy, annual eye exams keep a close watch on your eyes. Your eye doctor may also recommend more frequent eye exams if you’re at higher risk for certain eye conditions. Discuss how often you should schedule eye exams with your ophthalmologist to determine your frequency.
5. How Do I Protect My Eyes From Blue Light?
Blue light is a wavelength of light emitted from electronic screens. It can cause many issues if you have too much exposure, including headaches, eye strain, dry eyes, and fatigue.
You may experience these issues if you’re looking at your phone a lot or working on a computer all day for your job. Your eye doctor can recommend different ways to protect your eyes to minimize these visual symptoms.
Ask them about how often you should take breaks from the computer screen and how you can incorporate those breaks into your work day. You can also ask them about tinting for your glasses and special contact lenses that block out blue light.
6. What is the Best Time to Get LASIK?
Even if your eye doctor is an optometrist and not an ophthalmologist, they can still give you good advice about vision correction procedures since they’re familiar with your visual health. They’ll know if your prescription is stable and be familiar with any seasonal issues you may have, like allergies, so they can recommend a good time of year to get LASIK.
You need to go to an ophthalmology practice to be evaluated for LASIK. If you’re interested in LASIK, Herschel LASIK & Cataract Institute is an excellent choice for a LASIK consultation. Learn more by scheduling your consultation at Herschel LASIK & Cataract Institute in Orlando, FL, now!
