When To See An Ophthalmologist

Author: Sara Goldstein

For many people in the United States, visiting an ophthalmologist is something that only happens if they've suffered an eye injury or if their eyes are bothering them. Unfortunately, if you wait to visit the ophthalmologist until your vision is already bothering you, you may have lost valuable time in treating a serious eye problem.

Like other health problems, by scheduling regular eye exams with an ophthalmologist near you, you will ensure that any vision problem or eye health problem is diagnosed as early as possible. For some vision problems, like glaucoma, the best way to prevent serious problems like blindness is to start treatment as early as possible.

The goal for experienced ophthalmologists is to diagnose eye diseases and treat any eye problems through surgical or other medical techniques. This means that even if you see fine right now, an ophthalmologist can use special diagnosing techniques to determine if you are at risk of developing any serious eye diseases.

In addition to regular eye exams, you should contact your ophthalmologist immediately if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms:

  • Red, Irritated Eyes
  • Eye Discharge
  • Wandering Eyes
  • Twitching Eyes
  • Swollen Eyes
  • Blurry or Double Vision
  • Excessive Tearing or Dry Eyes
  • Eye pressure

These symptoms can signal many different eye diseases and refractive problems that your ophthalmologist can treat. The most common eye problems people come to the optometrist for include glaucoma, cataracts, myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and amblyopia.

While there has been a lot of progress in the field of ophthalmology, there are still some eye diseases that cannot be cured. Fortunately, if the eye disease is diagnosed early, there are steps that can be taken so that the effects of the disease are put off as long as possible.

Eye diseases can often be corrected with medication, but other refractive vision problems must be corrected with glasses, contacts, or surgery. Experienced ophthalmologists are now able to correct myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism with LASIK vision correction, and other vision problems can be corrected with replacement IOLs.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/vision-articles/when-to-see-an-ophthalmologist-2120572.html

About the Author

If you live in the Charlotte, North Carolina area and would like to learn more about how you can correct your vision, or if you are concerned about your vision and would like to schedule an eye exam, please visit the website of Horizon Eye Care today.