It is essential that you take care of your eyes. While your usual physician might not focus on your eye health, that doesn’t mean it isn’t vital. Instead, you need to go to an eye specialist to get the eye care you need. While this is especially important for people with vision problems, those without eye problems need to get regular checkups to make sure that they catch problems early on, before they get worse.
Are optometrists medical doctors? While they are not MDs, they do have years of medical training. However, check whether I need an ophthalmologist or optometrist. They will offer different services, so make sure you get the best one for you. To find the best eye doctor near me for contacts, look around at your options. Most will offer contacts, so see if something about a certain practice makes them a better choice. It might be better pricing or more options. If you check with several practices, you’ll be able to compare them and choose the best one for you.
We all are born without our full vision capabilities. In fact, newborn babies are only able to see about a foot in front of them at the time of their birth. Vision continues to develop over the first year in life and, though it is not fully developed until they are around a year old, by the time they are three months they are typically able to follow objects and recognize faces.
However, many vision problems develop relatively early in life and for the one fourth of children who have some type of vision impediment, their vision problems could affect both learning and behavior if not detected and corrected. Fortunately, an optometrist is typically able to diagnose and treat any minor vision problems with eye drops and corrective lenses. Sometimes a child will wear a patch over one eye in order to provide the other eye the chance to become stronger without interference from the covered eye.
Nearsightedness is one of the most common issues that people have with vision and it develops by the time most people are twelve years old, though some are diagnosed with nearsightedness at an even younger age. Nearly half of all Americans between the ages of twelve and fifty four are considered to be nearsighted, but nearsightedness usually tends to progress only through periods of growth or until around the age of twenty. Farsightedness is less common, and usually effects only around fifteen percent of people. No matter what the cause, more than half of all adults see an eye specialist and wear prescription glasses. As most adults reach their late forties, many develop the need for different eye wear such as reading glasses as well.
An optician or eye specialist will be able to further elaborate upon all vision problems that you may be likely to develop, and many an eye specialist is careful to warn against sun damage to your eyes as well. Much like the rest of our bodies, the eyes are also susceptible to harmful UV rays. These rays can cause damage such as cataracts, macular degeneration, or even skin cancer in the skin surrounding the eyes. Fortunately, many of these problems can be prevented by regularly wearing sun glasses while in the sun, though it is important that these sunglasses filter out the majority, if not all, of UV rays.
Eye strain is another common concern of many an eye specialist, and it is becoming more and more common with the advent of technology. Eye strain can easily be caused by staring too long at a laptop screen or even a phone screen, and it is a problem that is affecting more and more people, particularly young adults like millennials. Symptoms of eye strain include dry eyes as well as strained feeling eyes.
If you wear glasses or contacts regularly, it is important that you see an eye specialist at least once a year. At your eye specialist, your vision will be tested and the backs of your eyes will be examined, as well as any prescriptions adjusted, if need be. An eye specialist can also keep an eye out for any number of more serious eye problems (such as cataracts) that become more and more likely to occur as you age.