EYE DISEASES & DISORDERS

Experts say that skipping regular and thorough eye exams is chief among the barriers to early detection. It's important to have your eyes regularly checked through dilated pupils so doctors can get a good three-dimensional view of the optic nerve and retina.

Sometimes eye diseases occur with the natural aging process. Other times, they run in families, in the same way that cancer or heart disease might. Diseases and conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure also increase the risk for eye problems. The leading causes of irreversible blindness--glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration--tend to come on silently, without pain or other symptoms in the earliest stages. The later an eye problem is diagnosed, the harder it becomes to treat. In some cases, any vision that has slipped away may be gone forever.

Experts say that skipping regular and thorough eye exams is chief among the barriers to early detection. It's important to have your eyes regularly checked through dilated pupils so doctors can get a good three-dimensional view of the optic nerve and retina. For a dilated exam, an eye specialist places drops in the eye to enlarge the pupils. "Without dilating the eye, it's like looking inside a room through a keyhole instead of an open door," according to George Blankenship, M.D., immediate past president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO).

Also problematic is the tendency to ignore symptoms when they do present themselves, says Lee R. Duffner, M.D., an ophthalmologist in Hollywood, Fla. "It's not uncommon to see patients who say they've been having eye problems for a whole year before coming in to get checked--usually because of a spouse or other relative who encouraged them to come in."

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