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Keep Your Eyes Healthy With Regular Eye Exams at Your Family Eye Doctor

People often take their eyes for granted. However, you should never ignore your or your family’s eye health. Eye health is just as important as other aspects of your overall health.

A developmental optometrist evaluates visual processing disorders that affect reading, learning and coordination. She also provides comprehensive eye exams, contact lens fittings and cataract surgery co-management.

1. Maintain a Healthy Weight

If you’re overweight or obese, it can increase your chances of developing eye problems down the road. To help prevent this, you should maintain a healthy weight and get regular exercise. This will help prevent many common health issues that can have a negative impact on your vision. It will also help you feel better overall. This is good news for both you and your kids!

Companies like Hillside Optometry offer dedicated family eye doctors who provide comprehensive eye care for all ages. They specialize in routine eye exams, vision correction, and early detection of eye conditions. With a focus on personalized care, these practices ensure optimal eye health for the entire family.

2. Get Regular Exercise

Keeping up with these exams will enable your family eye doctor to follow your child’s ocular development at every stage of their life, and catch any health issues that may develop along the way. It’s also a good idea to bring your child’s medical history with you when you go for an eye exam, as many ocular conditions are hereditary.

Encourage your kids to get plenty of exercise, which improves blood circulation and oxygen flow in the body. They should also eat a balanced diet that includes lots of leafy greens, fruits, and zinc-rich foods to support their eye health. Minimize screen time, and make sure your kids take frequent breaks while working or playing on a digital device. Role-playing with your kids about what they can expect during an eye exam can also help to demystify the process and make them feel more comfortable.

3. Get Your Kids’ Eyes Checked Regularly

Kids need good vision to succeed in school. When they can’t see well, they may struggle to read the blackboard or what’s on their desk, and they can fall behind in their studies. This can have serious consequences for their future. A routine eye exam can help make sure that their vision is healthy and working properly so that they can get the treatment they need to learn.

The best time to have children’s eyes checked is during their well-child visits. At these appointments, an eye doctor will check the child’s eye health by shining a light in their eyes and examining them for signs of eye disease or other problems. This is also an opportunity for the eye doctor to give parents advice about how to take care of their child’s eyes.

Eye exams for children can be scary or confusing for them, but you can help ease their anxiety by explaining what will happen during the exam in simple terms. You can play with them and read books about visiting the eye doctor to prepare them for the experience, and you should try to schedule their exam during times when they are typically in a good mood.

Kids should have their first exam at 6-12 months of age (or as recommended by their pediatrician). They should have another eye exam before they start preschool, and they should have a comprehensive eye exam before they reach kindergarten or grade one. Eye doctors can test their visual acuity, assess how the eyes work together, and test for eye alignment, focus, and depth perception. They can also use a high-magnification test called slit-lamp testing to look at the eye inside and out, after dilation of the pupil.

4. Get Your Adults’ Eyes Checked Regularly

While many adults may start to notice the need for glasses as they get older, a number of serious eye problems can develop without any early warning signs. Getting a regular eye exam can help prevent these conditions from developing and, if they do, your family’s eye doctor can prescribe treatment that will slow or stop their progression.

A comprehensive eye exam is a detailed evaluation of how well you can see. It can include tests like visual acuity, which measures how clearly each eye can see letters on a chart, and peripheral vision, which is the area you can see around your eyes without moving your head or looking down. Your doctor can also test depth perception, color vision, eye muscle movements and how your pupils respond to light.

In addition to testing your visual acuity, your eye doctor will ask you about your medical history and current medications and about any family members who have had eye or vision problems. Your doctor will then use a tool called an autorefractor to evaluate the curve of your cornea, which plays an important role in whether you can have a successful contact lens prescription or not.

It is recommended that adults ages 18 to 64 with no risk factors have an eye exam every two years. For those over age 65, it is important to visit the eye doctor annually. Eye diseases like cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration tend to develop more quickly in this population, so annual visits are critical for maintaining healthy eyes. A vision issue can negatively affect almost every aspect of a person’s life, from academics and athletics to work and social interactions. Without a comprehensive eye exam from an optometrist, vision problems can go undetected and even be misdiagnosed as ADHD, dyslexia or a learning disability.

5. Have Your Eyes Checked Often

It’s important to have your eyes checked regularly, especially if you have a history of eye problems in your family. The eye doctor will ask questions about your health, family medical history and any medications you are taking that may affect vision or eyesight. Some of the eye tests your doctor will perform may include an eye chart to test how well you see at a distance and up close, a cover test to observe how your eyes move together and a visual field test which can detect blind spots or gaps in your vision.

The new guidelines from the American Optometric Association recommend that everyone between ages 18 and 64 get a comprehensive eye exam every year. This is a significant increase from previous recommendations which only required those with a risk factor, like a family history of eye disease or diabetes, to have an eye exam every other year.

Children should begin getting their eyes checked at birth and then at every well-baby visit. This will allow the doctor to look for common childhood eye problems like lazy eye or crossed eyes which, if left untreated, can hinder learning and development.

The doctor may also use interactive play or handheld devices to check your child’s eyes as well as the traditional retinoscope and slit lamp. Younger kids who cannot read will be asked to identify pictures instead of letters. Some children may require drops to dilate their eyes for the eye test, while others don’t even need them at all. If you notice any changes in your child’s eyesight, schedule an appointment to see the family eye doctor right away. Early detection and treatment can prevent further eye damage and even permanent loss of vision.

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