Everyone Should Get Visual Exams

By Author: Claire Beicker
Total Articles: 5
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We are becoming a far healthier society, and we are doing much better at raising awareness of the need to be proactive in order to maintain good health. But even so many of us go without visual examinations that we actually need, and as a result we go on taking care of our kids, driving cars, and even operating machinery with a visual impairment that could easily be treated with a pair of eyeglasses or contact lenses.Most schoolchildren have received annual vision and hearing screenings since the late 1960s, and the vast majority of problems that are identified in those screenings are handled. Parents are ultimately responsible for treatment, but even parents who cannot afford it have numerous resources available to them to ensure that their kids go to school each day with the equipment they need to be successful.These screenings would virtually eliminate the adverse effects of visual problems if every one of those problems started during our school years. But they don't, and in fact our higher level of physical activity when we're young can mask vision problems that are beginning to develop, simply because physical activity ...
... has a profoundly positive impact on visual acuity and processing. But then we go to college, get out of college, and start working. Our level of physical activity tends to drop, and at the same time we tend to spend more time in intense study, related either to classes or work. This can cause visual issues to raise their ugly heads, but even as our eyes start to get blurry and we have a harder time concentrating at work we tend to put the trip to the optometrist off for as long as possible. Of course, when a visual problem gets to the point where we actually can't function, most of us do go to the optometrist. But it can take a long time for the most common issues to reach that point, and as a result millions of people walk around mildly nearsighted or mildly farsighted, having more trouble seeing than they should, but not seeking treatment because they can still function.Those patients might be able to see well enough to function, but that does not mean that they are able to function at the highest possible level. Visual problems can lead to vertigo, drowsiness, headaches, and other issues that make normal functioning harder; and the gradual reduction of peripheral vision, which many people don't even notice, can severely limit one's awareness. This is especially critical when driving.In many ways, those students who have visual problems when they are young and have to wear glasses are at an advantage. When a child is diagnosed with a visual impairment, getting the right ongoing treatment becomes a way of life. Those who make it through childhood without needing glasses are much less likely to visit an optometrist on an annual basis just to make sure things are still all right.When a person with a visual impairment does finally go to the optometrist to get a pair of eyeglasses, the effect can be nothing short of life-changing. So much is connected to vision - from our ability to enjoy a movie to our ability to read the latest company memo - that restoring moderately impaired vision to clarity has an impact on nearly every aspect of life.To learn more about eyeglasses, click here