Annual eye exams can prevent blindness

WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) - In order to stay healthy, appointments and checkups are made throughout every year. In addition to the doctor and dentist, you may be overlooking one very important appointment that could save your sight.

Annual eye exams provide proper care that the eyes need especially if you're diabetic. Having diabetes can cause serious problems in your vision.

"Diabetes can cause you to change your eye glass prescription frequently, it has to do with the sugar levels in the eye," said Paul Koch, Medical Director of Koch Eye Associates . "Second, people with diabetes are more likely to develop glaucoma than other people. People with diabetes are more likely to get cataracts than other people, but more importantly people with diabetes can get a condition called a retinopathy which actually is a little bleeding inside the eye."

Blood vessels in diabetic patients can become fragile and even pop, causing the eyes to bleed. Diabetic patients can try to prevent retinopathy by maintaining excellent blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and keep their lipids under control.

Patients with 20/20 vision could be at risk as well.

"If they have perfect vision that just means that the center part of the retina is clear," said Koch. "They could be bleeding in other parts of the retina, but until the blood clot seeps down to the vision center the vision is still excellent."

When examined, the eye is checked for spots and blood flow in the eye. Angiographers, like Harry Catchatorie at Koch Eye, check for these symptoms.

“The quality of the photographs and the quality of the angiograms themselves go a long way to helping our specialist our physicians to determine what is the stage of the persons retinopathy and what is the best treatment plan for that person,” said Koch.

Diabetic retinopathy unchecked can lead to blindness, something that patient Katherine Godin is trying to prevent. In the past two years, she has undergone 22 laser treatments in both eyes. Her treatments are done at the St. James Surgery Center in Warwick and have helped her keep her job.

“I'm an attorney. I write a lot, I do a lot of research so I read a lot of police reports so it really, really affects my life so it's very frightening,” said Godin.

With 22 surgeries and countless hours of appointments, it's been worth it.

“I would like to think it save my vision at least for the time being," said Godin. "I don’t know what my life would be like if I hadn’t gotten it check out and hadn’t been vigilant and on top of it."

The number one thing people can do to catch this disease early is to get an eye exam every year.

Even though diabetics know they're at risk for this condition, fewer than 50% of all diabetics get their eyes examined on a regular basis.

Treatments at Koch Eye are more than 90% affective in preventing vision loss from diabetes.

For more information, head to their website at www.kocheye.com .