What Is Ocular Health?
Ocular health is, simply, the health of our eyes. Our eyes capture light and then work with our brains to help us see. Good ocular health is defined as having vision that is 20/20 or better with or without correction, and disease free eyes.
What Threatens Ocular Health?
Unfortunately, our eyes are constantly being exposed to things that can harm our vision. Whether it is UV from the sun or blue light from our extensive use of digital devices, we are constantly jeopardizing our ocular health. Blue light especially is a huge concern, as we spend a lot of time looking at our phones, computers, televisions, and tablets. This can cause digital eye strain and hurt our retinas. We can also strain our eyes by reading in bad lighting.
What Can You Do To Maintain Ocular Health?
It is very important to get your eyes checked frequently! Whether you are an adult or a child, regular check-ups are vital to maintaining good ocular health. Eye exams catch eye diseases early on so that they can be treated and controlled. They also look for refractive errors, which affect your vision by causing nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatisms. These sorts of issues can be corrected by prescription lenses, contacts, or in some cases, surgery. Along those lines, eye exams help you make sure that your prescriptions are up to date and correcting your vision, instead of harming you with the wrong ones! We can protect our eyes from UV by wearing good sunglasses and we can filter out the blue light with special blue light blocking lenses.
Why Is Getting Your Eyes Checked Now So Important?
It is important for people, especially students, to get their eyes checked at this time of year! If you are about to go back to school for the fall, you want to make sure your vision is where you thought it was, and that you have the right prescription. Many people think that they have 20/20 vision, but an eye exam reveals that they actually need some sort of prescription! Your current prescription could also be out of date, and you might need a new one to best correct your vision. Get your eyes checked to make sure you can catch any problems early on and get the right glasses, contacts, or surgery to correct your vision and maintain good ocular health!