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Do you have diabetes, and it’s been a while since your last eye exam? Schedule an eye exam at Retina Consultants of Miami in Miami, FL, today!
One specific complication of diabetes can manifest in your eyes and cause vision loss if left untreated. At Retina Consultants of Miami, our retinal specialists have the knowledge and expertise to diagnose and manage diabetic retinopathy, so you can enjoy crisp, clear vision for years to come.
Diabetic retinopathy is an eye condition that causes blurry vision in people who have diabetes. Like conditions that affect your sight, diabetic retinopathy requires timely treatment to avoid severe vision loss.
The best way to avoid developing diabetic retinopathy is to keep your blood sugar under control. Taking your medicine, eating healthy, and being physically active can also help reduce your chances of developing the condition.
Diabetic retinopathy can also lead to other serious eye conditions like diabetic macular edema, neovascular glaucoma, and retinal detachment. Anyone with diabetes can develop diabetic retinopathy, including women with gestational diabetes.
Although your risk for developing diabetic retinopathy increases the longer you have the condition, you can reduce your risk by controlling your diabetes.
Diabetic retinopathy is frequently caused by uncontrolled diabetes or elevated blood sugar levels. Like other blood vessels in the body, elevated blood sugar levels can damage the blood vessels in your retina.
The retina is a thin piece of light-sensitive tissue that is located at the back of your eye. The retina is responsible for gathering information received from the light entering your eye and sending it to the brain via the optic nerve.
When the blood vessels in the retina become damaged, they may begin to leak. In the early stages, it is known as non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
If the condition progresses, it can change into advanced diabetic retinopathy, known as proliferative diabetic retinopathy. At this stage, the eye begins to create new, poorly formed blood vessels.
The new blood vessels tend to also break and leak since they are so fragile. Eventually, scar tissue may form and can cause a retinal detachment.
If you have diabetes, your primary care doctor or endocrinologist will likely recommend routine diabetic eye exams to ensure you are not developing diabetic retinopathy. These visits are especially important because diabetic retinopathy often does not present many obvious symptoms in the early stages of the condition.
The most common symptoms of diabetic retinopathy are:
Do you have diabetes, and it’s been a while since your last eye exam? Schedule an eye exam at Retina Consultants of Miami in Miami, FL, today!
In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, your eye doctor will likely closely monitor your eyes. Mild to moderate non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy will likely not require immediate treatment.
Your eye doctor will most likely want to see you more frequently than once a year if you are diagnosed with mild or moderate diabetic retinopathy to ensure that the condition is not progressing. For more advanced cases of diabetic retinopathy, your eye doctor will probably want to begin treatment right away.
The most common method of treatment for diabetic retinopathy is medical injections. Through this, your eye doctor will be able to deliver the medication directly to the source of the issue to prevent worsening of the condition and further vision loss.
In some cases, your eye doctor may recommend laser procedures. Laser procedures can reduce swelling in the retina and prevent the formation of any new blood vessels.
For very advanced cases, your eye doctor may recommend a procedure called a vitrectomy. During this procedure, your eye doctor will remove all of the gel that fills your eye.
Removing this gel can help prevent a possible retinal detachment.
