subject: Your Optician May Save Your Life [print this page] Many people underestimate the importance of going to an optician to have their eyes checked. After all, theres nothing life-threatening about needing a pair of glasses, no matter how bad their eyesight may be.
But still, it may surprise people to find out that there are a lot of things that opticians treat other than blurred vision.
Regular Checkups
Most patients decide to visit an optician only when they feel that something is wrong. However, instead of doing this, it is recommended that people have their eyes examined regularly, even if the checkups are as far between as every two years. Regular checkups allow the optician to monitor the health of the eyes and to check on the effect of any treatments that the patient is currently receiving, such as corrective lenses. These checkups are an important part of general health care, and are as important as other regular health examinations.
For people who are experiencing eye issues, it may be better to have these eye examinations more frequently. This is particularly true for those whose vision is impaired. They need to have their eyes checked initially, and then they have to come back and have their prescription updated once in a while. This rule also applies to those who are at a higher risk for eye ailments. Generally, people who are 45 years old and up have a bigger tendency to show signs of eyesight deterioration.
Early Warning Signs
The routine checkups done by an optician can yield perfectly normal results. In this case, the patient is extremely lucky, because this means that there is nothing wrong with his eyes. However, some examinations may also reveal signs of eye conditions that may develop in the future. An example of this is an eye disease called glaucoma. Glaucoma usually affects older people, but some are able to contract it at a young age. With an eye checkup, the optician may be able to detect the presence of the disease even if it hasnt fully manifested itself. In this case, the patient who got his eyes checked is extremely fortunate, because he was made aware of his condition early on. Because of this, he is free to do something about it before it becomes too serious to treat.
A Life Threatening Condition
In the town of New Yorkshire in England, persons life was saved because of an eye test. The person decided to go to an optician to have her eyes checked because she was experiencing blurred vision. When the optician took a look, he saw that there was a portion of the patients retina which was raised. Knowing that there was a possibility that it was a tumor, the optician immediately called the patients attention to it and advised her to go to the hospital immediately. Following the opticians advice, the patient consulted the hospital optician, who confirmed the original findings and determined that the lump in the patients right eye was indeed a tumor. She underwent the required surgery a few days after the diagnosis.
