Some people find it very useful to spend a few hours at the beginning of each year with a calendar and a list of yearly tasks that need to be done, scheduling all of the appointments for the year at one time. That’s an easy way to make sure you don’t miss anything on your list, and it makes it easy to avoid scheduling more than one appointment on the same day. Some of these annual checklist items include things like rotating the tires on your car, taking the pets to the vet for their shots, scheduling yearly dental examinations for your children, and renewing memberships and licenses. Another thing that should be on the list is eye examinations, especially if you do a lot of reading. Eye health is key to good reading skills – nothing will slow your reading speed faster than the inability to focus on the words, or blurred vision that leads to eyestrain.
An eye examination, or ophthalmic examination, tests both your eye health and the state of your vision. The doctor will check to see if you can read the letters on an eye chart (called a Snellen chart) which tests each eye individually. They’ll check for stereopsis, or your ability to see in three dimensions. They’ll check peripheral vision, and make sure that the muscles of your eye work properly to move your eyes to either side and up and down, and that your pupils dilate and constrict correctly. An ophthalmoscope is used to examine the blood vessels, optic nerve, retina, and other structures of each of your eyes. Finally, you’ll be tested for glaucoma, a disease that leads to increased pressure in the eye that can damage the optic nerve.
Because children’s undiagnosed eye problems often lead to the incorrect conclusion that they actually have learning problems, children need to be tested for vision as soon as they start to learn their alphabet. If your child isn’t learning to read at the expected rate, it might be simply because they can’t see the letters very well. As children continue to grow and develop quickly, eye tests should be given every 2 years, or more often if they need to wear glasses.
Young adults to age 40 should have their eyes tested every 5 to 10 years, unless they wear glasses or contacts (in which case yearly visits are often recommended) or have problems with their eyes. From age 40 – 54, visits are recommended every 2-4 years; from age 55 – 64 every 1-3 years; and for people 65 and older, an eye visit is recommended every 1-2 years. It’s especially important for older people to have eye examinations because it’s the primary way to identify the start of potentially serious problems like cataracts, macular degeneration, retinal detachment, and diabetic retinopathy (eye damage related to diabetes).
Schedule your yearly exam now, and you can cross that off your to-do list for the year!
