Why Are Annual Eye Exams Important For Those With Diabetes?

The best way to prevent vision loss from diabetes is routine vision exams. That’s why we recommend a diabetic eye exam for everyone with diabetes at least every 12 months. At Central Ohio Vision and Eyecare, our doctors are committed to education and helping patients support their eye health for life. 

In addition to annual exams, we recommend screening photos and OCT to help monitor ocular heath for those with diabetes. OCT stands for optical coherence tomography, a scan that lets us see the cell layers that make up the retina and check for any abnormalities, including bleeding, swelling from diabetes, and other symptoms of illness. These tests give us more information to monitor and assess the health of the eyes, and we send a report to everyone’s primary care doctor to keep them updated on the patient’s health.

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, make sure to schedule your yearly eye exam with us today! At Central Ohio Vision and Eyecare, we are committed to eye health education and will do all we can to support you in your journey towards greater eye health and overall wellness.

1– This is a high resolution image of the back of the retina, which allows us to see blood vessels, the optic nerve (connects the eye and brain together), and macula (central vision).

2– This is a cross section of the retina that lets us see the individual cell layers, which allows us to see diabetic changes as well as macular degeneration and detachments of the retina.

3 – These are thickness comparison maps. These allow us to compare how thick or thin parts of the eyes are compared to a normal healthy eye. Using these maps helps us gauge risk of and monitor diseases such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and keep the best, most complete record of current eye health so we can track people’s eyes more completely.