Diabetes and Your Eyesight: See Our Optometrists in Fairfax Regularly to Maintain Eye Health

If you suffer from diabetes or have a family history of the disease, you are vulnerable to blood vessel problems in your eyes. Diabetic retinopathy can cause symptoms ranging from blurry vision to blindness. Don’t despair, however, because special monitoring from our Fairfax optometrists can preserve your vision and help you maintain your eye health. With regular treatment of diabetic retinopathy in Fairfax, our eye doctors can diagnose and monitor any adverse changes within your eye, such as leaking or swollen blood vessels.

Diabetic Retinopathy Symptoms

Don’t wait to experience these symptoms before seeing your optometrists in Fairfax, since early diabetic retinopathy (blood vessel damage) has no symptoms. Be proactive and see your optometrist regularly to help prevent eye damage from diabetes. However, the following symptoms (and any vision changes) warrant a special trip to see your eye doctor if you notice:

• Blurry or clouded vision.
• Blind spots, such as an "empty" or "blank" spot in the center of your visual field.
• Floaters, which are small pieces of tissue that appear to “float” in front of your eyes. Nearsighted people are most likely to develop and notice these. Floaters are not dangerous on their own, but a sudden appearance of a large floater or sudden increase in the amount could be a sign diabetic retinopathy is getting worse. 
• Problems seeing clearly at night.
• Any other vision changes that concern you.

Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment: What Our Optometrists in Fairfax Can Do for Diabetic Eye Disease

Monitoring may be all that's needed to help preserve your vision. Our optometrists in Fairfax will let you know when or if other treatments, like the following, are needed: 

• Laser eye surgery to seal leaky blood vessels or repair retinal detachment.
• Eye injections with medicine to treat inflammation.
• Replacement of vitreous fluid behind the eye.
• New treatments in development, including eye drops.

Diabetic Retinopathy Prevention and Control

Patients who carefully control blood glucose (sugar) levels can slow down any eye damage from diabetic retinopathy. Follow these steps:

• Take your insulin or other prescribed medication
• Follow your diet
• Exercise regularly
• Control high blood pressure
• Avoid alcohol
• Don’t smoke
• Get regular eye exams from our Fairfax optometrists

Contact Our Local Fairfax Optometrists for More Information Today!

If you have diabetes, or if it runs in your family, you need more frequent and in-depth eye care. Make an appointment for an eye exam with Dr. Howard Budner & Associates Optometrists in Fairfax, VA. Contact us at 703-935-4181 today.