Annual Exams Are Key to Healthy Eyes  Three little words are enough to describe what’s needed for good eye health: annual eye exam.

“I’ve been providing eye exams for more than 12 years now,” says the optometrist from Norfolk, Virginia. “During that time, I’ve diagnosed four different tumors and several cases of diabetes in patients who didn’t even know they had a health problem.

“As you might imagine, I encourage everyone to get an annual eye exam — not just an eye screening!”

Dr. DeVito stresses that there’s a big difference between eye exams and eye screenings.

“Screenings are partial, limited eye assessments that take place in locations other than an eye doctor’s office,” he says. “Typically, a screening will be performed by a nurse at school, a pediatrician in the office or maybe even a clerk giving motorists a vision test for a driver’s license.

“There’s no doubt that screenings can be helpful at times in detecting some problems with vision, but I encourage patients to have a thorough eye exam in an optometrist’s or ophthalmologist’s office,” Dr. DeVito says. “The doctor can take an entire eyecare history and patients can take advantage of the doctor’s on-site diagnostic and treatment tools.”

Dr. DeVito recently installed a state-of-the-art instrument that detects glaucoma by examining tiny fibers in a patient’s optic nerve. “This new equipment allows us to spot damage in nerve fibers long before it would show up in the traditional eyepressure test.

“Early detection is crucial with glaucoma, and this test is only available during a thorough eye exam in the eye doctor’s office. You won’t get it during a screening.”

According to Dr. DeVito, annual eye exams also provide other benefits to patients. The eyecare doctor can:

• Measure for prescription lenses to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
• Check for the presence of eye diseases and conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy.
• Make sure your eyes are working well together, while also evaluating your eyes as part of your overall health.

“In recent years, I’ve had several situations in which I detected the presence of blood in the back of the eye, which is one of the first signs of diabetes,” says Dr. DeVito. “Those patients first learned they had a serious health condition during a routine eye exam in my office. I think that’s a great example of how worthwhile an annual eye exam can be.”