The importance of being proactive when it comes to eye health

Routine health checkups are important for any number of reasons, but certainly because they can potentially detect underlying issues that need to be addressed before a health concern can manifest into a full-blown health scare.

Unfortunately, when it comes to eye health, too many folks disregard the need for regular exams. If the eyes aren’t hurting or bothersome, it’s easy to believe everything is working just fine. However, many common eye diseases can long go undetected and by the time noticeable symptoms surface, significant damage may have already been done.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 11 million Americans over the age of 12 are in need of vision correction. With routine exams, doctors are not only able to potentially identify eye disease in its infancy, but they can devise comprehensive treatment plans to address the issues and more effectively stave off vision loss.

To find out more about the importance of routine exams and the latest breakthroughs helping improve patient outcomes, we spoke with some of the area’s leading eye health professionals to get their expertise.

Because some symptoms of an underlying problem may not be obvious or noticeable, how important is it to maintain a regular eye exam schedule and how do you advise patients of this?

“You might feel like you have 20/20 vision, but it’s possible to have a melanoma growing inside your eye without realizing it. This condition can not only lead to vision loss but could have serious health implications if left untreated. … Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and most of the time, it does not have symptoms until it is end-stage. Routine, regular eye exams are important as it allows us to detect many diseases in their early, asymptomatic stage, and allows us to intervene sooner with better prognosis.” —Dr. Mark Ossi, optometrist, Community Health Centers, Inc.

How does Florida’s abundant sunshine impact eye health, and what preventative measures do you recommend?

“It drives me nuts when patients say they don’t wear sunglasses because they’re ‘not sensitive to light’ or that it ‘darkens their vision too much.’ In Florida, wearing sunglasses is as essential as applying sunscreen—no excuses! No one wants to deal with early cataracts, macular degeneration, or, even worse, an eye melanoma. We only get one life and one set of eyes, so it’s vital to protect them.” —Dr. Josette Salazar, Delaney Eye Center

Is the increased presence of AI being felt in the field and how beneficial will that be for the near and distant futures?

“Ophthalmology, and especially retina, is a very technology-heavy field, where use of photographic diagnostic images is very important. We anticipate that AI will give us great insights into natural disease progression and allow for better prediction algorithms, allowing patients to better understand what their vision expectations might be in the long term. Most importantly, it likely will allow for earlier disease detection through primary care and other settings where access to a retina specialist may be limited. This may allow for more timely detection and treatment of diseases, which can make a big difference in final visual outcomes.” —Dr. Gokul N. Kumar, partner physician, vitreoretinal disease and surgery, Central Florida Retina

RESOURCE GUIDE

Ophthamology 

Central Florida Retina
Multiple locations
(800) 255-7188
CentralFloridaRetina.com

Florida Retina Institute
Multiple locations
(877) 357-3846
FloridaRetinaInstitute.com

Optometry 

Delaney Eye Center
Orlando
(407) 219-4123
DelaneyEyeCenter.com

Eye Specialists of Mid-Florida
Multiple locations
(352) 394-8705
EyesFL.com

Uptown Eyecare
Hunter’s Creek, Lake Nona
(407) 855-6132 | (407) 378-2585
UptownEyecareGroup.com