Vision Professionals of Leawood Can Care for Your Diabetic Retinopathy
If you have the common blood sugar imbalance known as diabetes, you may already be aware that this condition can pose serious dangers to your health, but did you know that it can also damage your eyes? A complication called diabetic retinopathy occurs in millions of U.S. diabetics, posing the risk of blindness in cases that go untreated. Here at Vision Professionals of Leawood, we can detect this condition and provide you with the right treatment recommendations to help you protect your vision.
Causes and Dangers of Diabetic Retinopathy
When your body loses some or all of its ability to control its blood sugar levels, you have diabetes. If you have Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas is damaged to the point that it can't produce insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. If you have Type 2 diabetes, your body has become resistant to insulin's effects.
Either way, elevated blood sugar levels are known to damage tissues such as nerves and blood vessels. The small, fragile blood vessels of the retina are a prime target. When these blood vessels are damaged, they leak blood into the retinal tissues, causing swelling and visual distortion. The mass of replacement blood vessels produced by the eye bleed even more easily. As they attempt to heal themselves, they create scar tissue, which may pull on the retinas and lead to retinal detachment.
Diabetic retinopathy is a significant cause of blindness, but it may not create any vision symptoms at first. This means that your retinas could be sustaining more and more damage without you realizing it, or getting help for it.
Diagnosis and Treatment from Our Leawood Eye Doctor
Our Leawood eye doctor, Dr. Ohde, knows how to spot the telltale signs of diabetic retinopathy in its earliest stages. We always inspect your retinas as part of our comprehensive eye and vision exams, which is one good reason for scheduling these exams every year. Some people only realize that they're diabetic after receiving such a diagnosis.
Controlling your diabetes is the key to controlling your diabetic retinopathy. Our optometrist can monitor your eyes closely for any changes, possibly recommending treatments such as corrective lenses and/or drugs that inhibit the formation of leaky blood vessels in the eye.
Don't Take a Chance – Schedule a Retinal Exam at Our Optometry Center
Don't let diabetic retinopathy turn out the lights on your vision. Call our Leawood optometry center today at (913) 239-9446 to schedule a retinal exam from our optometrist!