Healthy aging and vision care

Like any other organ in your body, your eyes don’t stay the same as you get older. As you age, you will probably experience normal age-related changes to your vision.

But there’s also a greater risk you could be faced with a more serious eye disease that could cause vision loss or blindness, and impact your life more significantly.

To continue to enjoy healthy vision as you advance in years, it’s important to have a comprehensive dilated eye examination with one of our eye doctors on a regular basis. During the exam, each eye is closely inspected for signs of common eye diseases and other causes of vision problems, many of which have no early warning signs.

What are normal changes to your eyes? As you get older, you could develop presbyopia. This means you have a reduced ability to focus near and may need reading glasses. You’ll likely need more light to see objects close to you or to distinguish between certain colors. It could take longer for your eyes to adjust to changing light levels. As you get older, you also need more contrast to see. As a result, low contrast text like in a newspaper may be more difficult to read.

As you age, an eye exam at Lighthouse Guild can help you avoid loss of vision due to serious eye diseases like macular degeneration and glaucoma. An exam can also detect more commonplace age-related eye problems such as:

• Dry eye syndrome occurs from many factors such as malfunctioning tear glands and is more common as we grow older. In particular, women undergoing hormonal changes may be affected. Your eye doctor may recommend over-the-counter eye drops or gels. For more severe dry eye, you may need prescription eye drops or a medical procedure.
• Floaters are common. Tiny specks or “cobwebs” appear to float across your vision in well-lit rooms or in bright sunlight. Though distracting, floaters are normally harmless. However, floaters accompanied by flashes of light require urgent medical attention because you may have a serious condition such as a retinal detachment. To prevent vision loss from a detached retina, your eye doctor may perform laser treatment or surgery.

What Can I Do Next To Take Care of My Eyes?

Call 212-769-6300 for Lighthouse Guild’s full service Optometric and Low Vision Clinic. The clinic also provides comprehensive low vision services to children and adults with visual impairment.