Diabetic Eye Exams | Annapolis | Annapolis Vision Center

Listen to the Stories Your Eyes Tell

Eye exams can reveal more than just your eye health—they can also detect potential problems that may be affecting your entire body, like diabetes.

With the help of modern diagnostic technologies and comprehensive eye care techniques, we’re ready to unravel the tale your eyes can tell about your health. Diabetes is one such story your eyes can share, and we can help tell it when you visit us for an eye exam.

All you need to do is book an appointment, and we can take care of the rest.

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Why Choose Annapolis Vision Center?

Because we understand the unique relationship your eyes and body share, we use modern diagnostic technologies to get a complete view of your eye health and how your body may affect it. Certain overall health conditions, like diabetes, could cause vision problems over time, so it’s important to detect them as early as possible.

We’ll use technologies like ultra-widefield fundus photography and ocular coherence tomography to get a clear picture of your eye health. These devices provide detailed images of your eye’s interior and are essential for detecting eye diseases and conditions early in their development.

Please visit our Eye Disease Diagnosis & Management page to learn more about our technologies and how they help us protect your vision.

How Diabetes Affects Your Eyes

Diabetes is a systemic health concern that affects how your body processes sugar in your bloodstream.

Unstable blood sugar levels can increase the risk of several health concerns, including a few that affect your eyes. Diabetes can increase the risk of several eye diseases and conditions, some of which can develop for years without noticeable symptoms. This health condition affects the blood vessels in your retina, the part of the eye responsible for collecting light and sending it to your brain.

The most common include diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, open-angle glaucoma, and cataracts.If you have diabetes, we recommend having annual eye exams so we can monitor eye health and detect potential issues as early as possible. You could help manage your risk of developing these issues by following your family doctor’s recommendations for insulin injections and their lifestyle advice.

Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common diabetes-related eye diseases, and it could cause permanent vision loss if it progresses far enough.

This disease develops when unstable blood sugar levels affect blood vessels in your retina, causing them to bulge, break, and leak fluid. Over time, the leaking fluid can damage your retina, leading to permanent vision loss.

There’s also an advanced version of the disease called proliferative diabetic retinopathy. It occurs when your retina attempts to compensate for the fluid loss by creating new, abnormal blood vessels. However, these vessels are quite delicate, and they can also break and leak fluids over time.

Eventually, these new vessels may develop scar tissue on your retina, increasing the risk of retinal detachment and permanent vision loss.

Diabetic Macular Edema

Diabetic macular edema, also known as DME, is an eye disease that can develop because of diabetic retinopathy. As fluids leak from your retina’s damaged blood vessels, they can pool underneath your macula and cause it to swell.

Your macula is the centermost part of your retina, responsible for providing the central vision you use to see fine details. However, as the macula swells, you may lose aspects of your central vision. Eventually, you could experience permanent vision loss.

Open-Angle Glaucoma

Open-angle glaucoma is the most common version of glaucoma, a group of diseases that affect your optic nerve over time and cause vision loss.

Diabetes can nearly double your risk of developing open-angle glaucoma. To learn more about glaucoma and its variations, please visit our Eye Disease Diagnosis & Management page.

Cataracts

Many adults can develop cataracts as they grow older, but diabetes can increase the risk of developing cataracts at an earlier age.

Cataracts affect the clarity of your eye’s natural lens. Over time, cataracts can progress to a point where they could cause blindness, but cataract surgery may help treat the issue by replacing your cataract lens with an artificial lens.

Learn more about cataracts by visiting our Eye Disease Diagnosis & Management page.

See More of Your Eye Health

Diabetes can affect your eye health in several different ways, but our team is ready to preserve your sight thanks to our comprehensive approach and modern technologies.

Book your next diabetic eye exam today at Annapolis Vision Center.

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