Prevention is better than cure. It is a vital part of caring for one´s health. Even so, people often underestimate it. Preventive care often brings to light serious ailments at a stage when treatment is still an option.
In the field of Ophthalmology there are many illnesses where immediate treatment is necessary. To facilitate this, detection and diagnosis in good time are absolutely essential. Should some patients postpone their preventive eye check-up due to fear of the ongoing Covid-19 and come too late, serious damage to sight or its loss cannot be ruled out.
Preventive eye check-ups are essential particularly in patients susceptible to a higher risk of eye disease – the elderly, people suffering from severe short-sightedness, those suffering from diabetes or those with a history of glaucoma in the family. Should the specialist discover presence of an eye ailment, suitable course of treatment will be proposed straight away.
Glaucoma in particular is a very dangerous eye disease. It appears entirely without warning or pain, but it causes the gradual dying out of the optical nerve fibres. Patients often see an incomplete picture, have slight temporary reduction of their field of vision, impaired peripheral vision, reduced sharpness of vision or smudged edges of the field of vision. Many people often do not realise that their vision has deteriorated or ascribe it to ageing. Untreated, glaucoma may cause complete loss of vision.
Loss of sight in older people is most commonly attributed to Age-related Macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD). In particular its “moist” form progresses rapidly and may destroy sight within a few weeks or months. Only a timely discovery of this disease and treatment using modern medication can prevent the loss of vision. The first subjectively perceivable symptoms of Age-related Macular degeneration are clouded eyes, grey patches in the centre of the vision field, unusually out-of-focus vision or rippled or bent lines and letters.
A preventive eye examination in the elderly may also bring to light cataracts. Cataracts worsen vision considerably. It often makes itself know through worsened or clouded vision sometimes described as looking through plastic or a curtain. Many patients believe that it is normal and don´t have their sight checked. Cataract surgery should not be postponed unnecessarily. The main reasons are the quality of life but also the fact that the “riper” the cataract, the more complicated the subsequent surgery.
Those suffering from diabetes should also take preventive eye care very seriously. Such patients ought to undergo preventive eye check-ups due to the so-called diabetic retinopathy. The insidiousness of this disease lies particularly in its inconspicuousness. At first it is practically asymptomatic. Only in its advanced form it manifests itself in worsened vision that is impossible to improve at this stage, only slow down. It is imperative to discover retinal diseases in time as complete loss of sight is a real threat!