Diabetes

Diabetes

Diabetic retinopathy occurs in people with diabetes when there is damage to the retina, the light-sensitive lining at the back of the eye.

In some people with diabetic retinopathy, blood vessels may swell and leak fluid. In other people, abnormal new blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina.

If you have diabetic retinopathy, at first you may not notice changes to your vision, but over time diabetic retinopathy can get worse and cause vision loss. It usually affects both eyes.

Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy:

    • Seeing spots or floaters in your field of vision

    • Blurred vision

    • Having a dark or empty spot in the centre of your vision

    • Difficulty seeing well at night

People who maintain a healthy lifestyle and control blood glucose levels are less likely to develop diabetes-related retinopathy. However, it is very important that people with diabetes see their optometrist regularly for an assessment of their eye health. With annual screening, any threats to sight that do develop can be detected and treated promptly minimising the risk of permanent loss of vision.

A fantastic piece of technology we are thrilled to be able to offer to you as part of our continued service, is the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scan.

If our optometrists think you may be at risk of either having or developing certain eye diseases such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, or diabetic eye disease, they’ll recommend you have an OCT scan. It only takes five to 10 minutes, but is integral in helping diagnose the aforementioned eye diseases.

As the OCT scan is non-invasive and scans your eye without touching it, you’ll be in and out quicker than you can say “life is short, buy the glasses”.

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