Some of the Reasons to Consult a Retina Specialists Yearly- Retinaboston.com

By admin | Jun 30, 2016

At Retina Consultants of Boston, we believe annual eye exams are just as important as an annual physical exam with your PCP.  This is particularly true for patients who are 50 years or older, or for patients who have risk factors of certain eye diseases.

Your eyes change with age, and it’s no secret that as you get older, your visual acuity declines. However, some conditions can be quickly treated or managed by your ophthalmologist or retina specialist.  This increases your chances at improving and preserving your vision through the natural aging process.

For patients who are at risk for developing eye problems (such as those at familial risk for retina detachments, high myopia, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, or diabetes), many of these diseases do not have symptoms until later stages; when there is little your retina specialist can do to restore your vision. Diseases like glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, for example, can suddenly rob patients of their vision.  An annual exam, or an exam every 6 months (depending on what your doctor deems necessary), could catch the problem in its early stages.  This would give your retina specialist more time to identify treatment modalities that can best preserve your vision.

For patients who already have chronic illnesses (such as diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis- see our blog post on plaquenil), it is essential to have yearly exams.  Diabetes can cause vision threatening retinopathy which progresses gradually.  Often, by the time patients start to experience serious symptoms, the retinopathy is too advanced for their retina specialist to return their vision back to pre-disease quality.  Plaquenil can cause slow vision decrease and the only way to monitor the effects of plaquenil (usually prescribed to rheumatoid arthritis patients) is to monitor the patient’s eye health annually.

Additionally, the early diagnosis of problems like vitreous hemorrhages, retinal detachments, macular holes and severe epiretinal membranes are best treated in a timely manner.  Routine eye exams keep your ophthalmologist and retina specialist appraised of any changes to your eye health so they can respond to issues quickly.

If you are looking for a retina specialist in Boston, our doctors are board-certified and taking on new patients.  Whether you’ve got an existing condition you want monitored, or you just want a check to make sure everything looks as it should- call us today! We are here to help.  With us at Retina Consultants of Boston, your eye health will always come first.