"Did you know that there are 24,500 people living with diabetes in Ayrshire, roughly 6.4% of the population. You may know some side effects Diabetes has on the body, but did you know it can affect your vision?
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that affects the back of the eye .It causes damage to the blood vessel walls which supply the retina (back of the eye) with nutrients.
At first, Diabetic Retinopathy may cause no symptoms or only mild vision problems. Eventually though, it may cause blindness. The condition can develop in anyone who has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The longer you have diabetes and the less controlled your blood sugar is, the more likely you are to develop this eye complication.
Risk factors include:
• Duration of Diabetes – after 10 years, 50% of patients show signs of Retinopathy & after 30 years, 90% show signs of Retinopathy, even with good control.
• Poor metabolic control
• Pregnancy – type 1 diabetics are reviewed every trimester.
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Nephropathy (renal issues)
• Lifestyle – smoking & poor diet can increase the likelihood of diabetes
The red spots or yellow patches show areas of Diabetic Retinopathy on the photo above
We screen for Diabetic Retinopathy by taking a 2D photograph of the Retina, but with our Premium Eye Exam we are able to get a 3D image of the back of the eyes – this show us what’s going on beneath the surface, so conditions like Diabetic Retinopathy could be detected even earlier. Early detection means quicker treatment and reduces the chances of damage to your vision.
In our Premium Eye Exam, we use OCT (Ocular Coherence Tomography) to take scans of the eyes, and these images create a map of all the layers of your eye. Think of an iceberg out in the ocean – we can only see the part above the surface, but a much larger part is hidden under the water; with these scans we can see much more and it gives us more information about you health than ever before.
Book your Premium Eye Exam now at Kilmarnock, Ayr, Troon or Prestwick."