Diabetic Eye Exams in Chevy Chase & Washington, D.C.

How Can Diabetes Affect Your Eyes?

Diabetes can impact your vision and eye health in several ways, including:

• Diabetic Macular Edema: In its advanced stages, diabetes can cause fluid to accumulate under your macula. This can cause you to slowly lose your central vision over time.
• Diabetic Retinopathy: Individuals with diabetes face an increased risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, which develops when the delicate blood vessels in your eyes weaken, causing them to leak blood and other fluids. Your eyes may try to compensate for this damage by growing new blood vessels, but these are typically weak and also prone to leaking. As diabetic retinopathy progresses, the damaged blood vessels cause your retina to become deprived of oxygen, causing portions of the retina to die.
• Cataracts: Individuals with diabetes are between 2 and 5 times more likely to develop cataracts than individuals without diabetes, and are more likely to develop cataracts at an earlier age.
• Glaucoma: Individuals with diabetes are twice as likely to develop glaucoma than individuals without diabetes.
• Blurry Vision: Diabetes can cause swelling of the eye lens, causing blurry vision.
• Double Vision: Low blood sugar can lead to blurry vision.

Glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy do not usually exhibit symptoms in their early stages, which makes them incredibly difficult to diagnose without a comprehensive eye exam. If these and other diabetes-related eye conditions are allowed to progress, they can cause permanent vision loss or blindness.