The Importance of Having Regular Eye Exams

Eye exams are important for people of all ages to help ensure healthy eyesight and detect signs of eye disease or conditions that can affect your overall health.

When you come in for an appointment with our team of ophthalmologists and optometrists at Maryland Eye Care Center in Silver Spring and Hyattsville, we offer highly specialized care, providing children’s eye exams, adult and senior eye exams, and diabetic eye exams.

The importance of an eye exam

Eye diseases that threaten your vision can exist without any symptoms. Eye exams are critical in helping our team detect signs of issues early on. Once it is diagnosed, we can treat your condition to slow down or even stop its progression, which may just save your eyesight.

An eye exam can identify eye disorders, including:

• Refractive errors
• Glaucoma
• Cataracts
• Amblyopia (lazy eye)
• Strabismus (crossed eyes)
• Macular degeneration
• Diabetic retinopathy

Our team can recommend how often you should schedule an eye exam, depending on the results of your first visit.

When to have eye exams

The frequency of your eye exams depends on several factors.

Eye exams for children

Eye exams can start early. For example, until the age of 2, we can check your child for problems like misaligned eyes, lazy eye, or crossed eyes. When they are 3-5, we can perform a more comprehensive exam that helps us detect any vision or eye alignment issues.

As your child grows, we recommend an eye exam schedule based on their individual condition. 

Eye exams for adults and seniors

Even if you are in good health and do not have any issues with your vision, you should have a comprehensive eye exam by the time you are 40 years old. The results of your eye exam can help us determine how often you should schedule exams in the future.

Once you are 60, you should have eye exams annually or every two years as recommended by one of our eye care providers.

Other factors that affect how often you need an eye exam

You can expect to need regular eye exams if any of the following apply to you:

• Wear glasses
• Wear contacts
• Eye disease runs in your family
• Have a chronic disease that puts you at higher risk for eye disease
• Take medications that can affect your vision

Our team monitors your or your child’s eye health beginning with the first appointment to ensure the best care possible throughout all the stages of life.

To schedule an eye exam with our team at Maryland Eye Care Center, call the location nearest you or book your appointment online today.