― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Did you know that an eye exam can help detect for things such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or even cancer? During a comprehensive eye exam, your optometrist will not only check if you're glasses/contact lens prescription has changed but also will include a thorough health check, which at that point the optometrist will evaluate the health and condition of the blood vessels in your retina which can help detect changes in the appearance and determine things such as diabetes or hypertension.
Already a diabetic? Having your yearly health check is very important, having uncontrolled diabetes can lead to blindness and there are usually no visible signs, so making sure you come in for a yearly checkup will help prevent such vision loss.
Did you know that 1 in 4 children have vision problems? And how would they know if they've never had good vision to compare it too. Most children don't even realize that they have vision problems and struggle in school or learning because of it. Eye exams for children should start when they are 6 months old and they are covered annually through Alberta Health Care for their yearly visits. Even if a child does notice changes before their yearly checkup, Alberta Health Care will cover all their visits at the optometrist!
Vision correction - whether it be with glasses or contacts - helps anyone who needs them perform better. Can you imagine trying to function without them? And your vision is constantly changing - noticed headaches or eye fatigue? It might be a good time to get your vision checked just to make sure your vision is being corrected to the right prescription. And if you haven't heard about the blue light coating, I could go on about the beneftis about that!
Shapes and styles for glasses is ever changing and who wants to wear out of style glasses? Honestly, not me. And not only that, if your glasses are older than 2 years, you're coatings - anti-reflective, UV, blue light coatings - probably need to change. Coatings hold up, but after a while, you'll notice scratches on the coatings and the UV protection starts to deterioate after time!
You only have 1 set of eyes and maintaining the health of them will make sure you have that one set for the rest of the life. Treat your eyes like you would with the rest of your body and get regular check ups!
Looking to book an annual checkup? Check out Lendrum Eyecare and feel free to book your appointment here. They have amazing doctors and are very thorough with their exams!
- The Cassie Paige
Photos by Israel
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