Recommendations To Help You Take Care Of Your Eye Health

25 September 2018

Jaime Allen

Your vision and your ability to see well and manage your life depend on the health of your eyes. If you don't take care of your eyes, you may not have them or their full vision later on in your life. Here are some tips to help you take care of your eyes now so you have them healthy and working well for many years.

Protect Your Eyes

One of the first ways to take care of your eyes is with preventative maintenance and wearing protective eyewear when it is necessary. Anytime your eyes are at risk of exposure to injury, such as from a Nerf bullet or flying shards of metal, you should put on eye protection. You can buy a pair of protective glasses at most local stores and at your eye doctor's office.

It is also important to protect your eyes from UV rays from the sun by wearing UVA and UVB protective sunglasses. These rays can damage not only your skin but your eyes, which can lead to macular degeneration and some types of cataracts. Even if you don't look directly at the sun, the UV rays can still filter down and reflect off surfaces to damage your exposed eyes. Just one day in the sun can cause you corneal sunburn, which can cause temporary vision loss and extreme pain until your cornea can recover from the damage.

Check Your Eye Health

Just as you check your teeth and oral health, and visit your family doctor for check-ups, it is also important to visit your eye doctor for eye exams and well checks. This is especially important if you have a family history of eye disease, you are diabetic, or you smoke. These factors can increase your chances of having an eye disease that can affect your vision long-term.

You can see an ophthalmology service or optometrist, as they can both check your vision and look for eye disease, then prescribe you new contacts or eyeglasses when it is time. However, if you experience an eye injury, such as a detached retina, and need an eye surgery to correct it, your ophthalmologist is the one who would perform the surgery.

Your eye doctor should educate you on your risk factors based on your health, age, and family history so you know what warning signs to look for that indicate a problem with your vision. For example, if you are at risk of a detached cornea, you should look for flashing lights or the appearance of a dark curtain over the edge of your vision. Let your eye doctor know immediately if this occurs so you can get the proper treatment to prevent vision loss.

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