Even many individuals with the disease are not aware that diabetes can lead to vision loss. Diabetes is the leading cause of loss of sight in adults under 75 years old according to the National Institute of Health. One of the most serious complications of diabetes is retinal damage caused by excessive pressure in the blood vessels of the eye, which is called diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy causes severe vision impairment and even blindness. Anyone with the disease is at risk and it is projected to affect 11 million people by 2030.

In its early stages, this condition is often asymptomatic. Vision problems occur when the retinal blood vessels begin to leak. When it is not diagnosed, blood vessels could be completely stopped up or new vessels may grow on the retina leading to irreparable vision loss.

Because symptoms are often not noticed until vision is already at risk it is crucial to see your eye doctor once a year to perform a diabetic eye exam if you are diabetic. Warning signs of diabetic retinopathy include fluctuating vision, eye floaters and spots, the development of a shadow in your field of view, blurry vision, corneal abnormalities, double vision, eye pain and near vision problems that have nothing to do with presbyopia. Cataracts and glaucoma are also more common in individuals with diabetes than in the average population.

All diabetic eye diseases are more damaging when glucose levels are uncontrolled. Monitoring your diabetes through diet, exercise and staying healthy and annual eye exams is the best combination for preserving your vision.

If you or a loved one has diabetes, make sure you are knowledgeable about the risks of diabetic retinopathy and other eye risks and speak to your optometrist if you have any questions. It could mean the difference between a life of sight and one of darkness.

Lots of people with astigmatism think they are not able to wear contact lenses. It may come as a surprise to know that there's actually a unique type of contact lens that corrects astigmatism. Firstly, what's astigmatism, anyway? An eye with astigmatism has an oddly shaped cornea, which alters how light enters the eye. The light doesn't hit the retina properly, which dramatically changes one's ability to see clearly.

Contact lenses that correct this condition, known as toric contact lenses, are manufactured from exactly the same material as regular spherical contact lenses. Toric lenses have a design that differs from that of regular lenses. Consider them almost like the bifocals of contact lenses; they have a power for your near or far sightedness and another for your astigmatism. They have curvatures at various angles. Compared with regular lenses, which can easily shift and have no effect on your vision, toric lenses need to stay in place. Toric lenses are therefore ballasted on the bottom, to prevent them from moving around on your eye.

Just like regular lenses, toric lenses come as soft disposable contact lenses, daily disposable lenses, and frequent replacement lenses. And people with astigmatism need not worry about options; toric lenses also come in color, or as multifocals. Hard contact lenses, also called rigid gas permeable lenses, provide a stronger shape which helps them stay in place, but usually, they're a little less agreeable to wear than soft lenses.

Due to the fact that toric lenses are just a bit more complex, you should factor in some extra time for your fitting. It might sound a little daunting, but it's worth the end result; effective, glasses-free treatment. Getting the best product for you will only improve your vision, and consequently, your everyday life.

There may be some assessments that you may have noticed during an eye exam and wondered what they measure. Having beams of light shined into your eyes could be an example. Firstly, this test is a retinoscopy examination, which is a preliminary way to determine the refractive error of your eye. By just examining the way light reflects off your retina, your optometrist can assess whether you are nearsighted, farsighted or have astigmatism. This is how they may also measure the prescription you would need to correct your vision.

Basically, what we are looking for during the retinoscopy exam is checking to see how your eye can focus. When we use the retinoscope to shine light into your eye, a reddish orange light reflects off your retina, through your pupil. This is called the red reflex. The retinoscope measures your focal length, or in other words, to measure the precise angle of refraction of light off your retina. And this is what lets us know how well your eye focuses. If it's apparent that you are not focusing correctly, that's when we use a set of lenses. We hold a few prescription lenses in front of your eye to see which one corrects the error.

All this happens in a darkened room. You will usually be instructed to look at something behind the doctor. This makes eyes easier to examine. The exam doesn't include eye charts, which means that a retinoscopy exam is also a really good way to accurately determine the prescriptions of the speech-impaired, or young children.

These days, it seems hard to find someone not on some sort of smartphone. These devices ensure that we have access to our friends, family and work wherever we are. However a lot of people hold their handheld devices right in front of their eyes. Reading like this can be hard on your vision.

Because people tend to hold smart phones so close, the eyes need to work much harder to look at text and images. It won't come as a shock to know that this might lead to issues, especially for people who already have glasses or contact lenses. If you already wear glasses, holding a device too close to your face will make it a real challenge for your eyes to correct for distance. This puts strain on your eyes, and you end up with headaches or migraines, which aren't pleasant.

There are more symptoms that can result from holding your device too close to your eyes, including blurred vision and dry eyes, because excessive screen time makes you blink less.

But we can't all just stop using our phones. So what's the solution? In order to lessen eyestrain and blurred vision resulting from the use of our smartphones and tablets, as eye care professionals, we recommend that you hold the phone further away, and make the text a little bigger, so you can still read it. It's also recommended to try using your phone in shorter increments, and giving your eyes lots of rests. And after that, if you still experience headaches, you might need glasses specifically made to help you focus up close. So be responsible about how you use your smart phone and care for your eyes to ensure you protect your vision.

Many people begin to notice problems with close vision during their 40s. This condition is known as presbyopia. If you already struggle with distance vision, and develop presbyopia, you don't have to carry a separate pair of reading glasses. Multifocal lenses, which rectify both myopia and presbyopia, help you see clearly at all distances with one pair of glasses.

Before mulifocals, bifocals were widely prescribed, but they have a major flaw; while they help you to focus on both near and distant objects, everything else is blurred. To create something more helpful, progressive lenses were invented, which give you and intermediate or transition part of the lens allowing you focus on everything between near and far distances. Progressive or no-line lenses are a type of multifocal lens that have a subtly curved lens, instead of a noticeable line distinguishing both areas of the lens.

Progressive lenses can take some time to get used to. Even though the gentle lens curve results in a product that is elegant, the lens's areas of focus are small, so that there's also room for transitional areas.

Bifocals still have their uses though; they are used to treat kids and teens who experience eye strain, which is the result of a struggle to focus while reading.

Even though it may seem like a quick fix, it's best to steer clear of pharmacy bifocals. Many of these types of glasses are one-size-fits-all, which means that the both lenses contain the same prescription and are not customized for the wearer.

If your prescription or fit is off you may find yourself suffering from headaches, eye strain or even nausea. During middle age, most of us cannot avoid presbyopia. But it's important to know that good, multifocal lenses can make it a lot easier.