Eye Health

Diabetes & Your Eyes: Getting Started

Schedule your annual diabetes eye exam today. A routine annual eye exam can help identify existing eye disease so you can take steps to prevent or delay vision loss caused by diabetes.

A woman gets her annual diabetes eye exam

What is a Diabetes Eye Exam?

Your yearly dilated and comprehensive eye exam or retinal photography will let you know if you have any diabetes-related problems and the health of your eyes. Even if you haven’t noticed any changes in your vision and your eyes seem fine, you could have diabetes-related eye disease. The sooner you detect diabetes-related eye diseases, the more likely you are to prevent or delay vision loss.

There are different tests your eye doctor (optometrist or ophthalmologist) will perform during your dilated and comprehensive eye exam. The tests can take between one to three hours to complete. Note that you may have retinal photography instead of a dilated and comprehensive eye exam. If diabetes-related eye disease is found and requires treatment, this treatment is most often performed by a retina specialist.

You can prevent or delay diabetes-related eye disease by managing your blood glucose levels and reaching your health targets. The American Diabetes Association recommends an A1C target of less than 7% for most people with diabetes.

What to Expect at Your Eye Exam

Your dilated and comprehensive eye exam will look for signs of five diabetes-related complications that can lead to vision loss or blindness. These conditions may not have symptoms, so your eye exam will help you find out if you have them early. Starting to treat eye conditions as early as possible is key so you can take steps to protect your vision. 

Your eye exam will include testing your vision acuity, measuring eye pressure, and imaging the eye (retinal photography or laser scans). Let’s take a closer look at specific tests of the eye exam and why they are important.

Newly Diagnosed with Diabetes

What You Need to Know About Your Eyes

This video shares a patient’s perspective on what newly diagnosed diabetes patients need to know about protecting their eyes and vision from diabetes-related eye disease. 

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4 Types of Eye Tests for People with Diabetes

Usually performed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist, there are four parts of a routine diabetes eye exam that use different technologies to look at parts of your eye’s overall health.

This is the best way to catch any signs of damage in your eyes, even in its earliest stages. It also lets your eye doctor understand how much damage there is.

After giving you eye drops to dilate (enlarge) your pupils (the dark circle in the center of your iris), your eye doctor will be able to see the inside of your eyes. It will take about 15 to 30 minutes for your pupils to dilate. This will let as much light into your eye as possible and keep your pupils from getting smaller when light is shined in them for the exam. This makes it easier for your eye doctor to look for signs of retinopathy, macular edema, and optic nerve damage.

While your pupils are dilated, your vision may be blurry and you may be very sensitive to light for about two to four hours after the exam. Bringing sunglasses with you will help you with light sensitivity until the drops wear off. You may want to have a friend or family member drive you home.

Your eye doctor may also use noninvasive imaging technology to scan your retina and the health of your optic nerve with a specialized light. Often photographs are also taken of each eye. These tests are important when diabetes-related eye disease is suspected or to see how your treatment is working.

These tests are used to check your retina, central macula, and optic nerve for almost every eye disease.

Your yearly dilated and comprehensive eye exam is the best way to find out about diabetes-related eye disease and take steps to protect your vision. Having eye problems you don’t know about can lead to vision loss or blindness. Early detection and treatment is the key to keeping your eyes healthy for a lifetime.

 

This test measures the pressure in your eye. The test is painless and you only need to sit still and open your eyes widely while your eye pressure is measured.

 If the pressure is high, it could mean you’ve developed glaucoma. Some people develop glaucoma even when the pressure is in the normal range. And some people never develop glaucoma even if the pressure is high.

Since glaucoma usually doesn’t have symptoms until it’s severe, this test is critical to finding out about it early. A 3D view of your optic nerves will also help to detect early damage from eye pressure.

The vision acuity test measures your vision in each eye and determines whether you need a prescription for glasses or contacts, or if your prescription needs to be updated. 

Diabetes can potentially lead to sudden changes in your vision and your eyeglass or contact lens prescription. The visual acuity test will help catch these changes. 

How Often Do I Need an Eye Exam?

For most people with diabetes, there is a clear relationship between blood glucose (blood sugar) control—including A1C levels and glucose time in range—and eye health. The more your blood glucose is in a safe range over time, you are less likely to develop any diabetes-related eye conditions.

Type 1 diabetes

 If you have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes you need to have an eye exam within five years of being diagnosed and every year after that.

Type 2 diabetes 

If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes you need to have an eye exam soon after your diabetes diagnosis. This is because you may have had type 2 diabetes without knowing it and it could have been affecting your eyes.

Pregnancy with diabetes 

If you are planning to get pregnant, have an eye exam before your pregnancy. Once you find out you are pregnant, have your eyes examined within the first trimester. If you have retinopathy, you may need to be examined again every trimester and for one year postpartum depending on the degree of retinopathy you have. Pregnancy can increase the pressure on blood vessels in your eyes. This increases your risk of progression of diabetes-related eye disease.

What Impacts Your Eye Health?

There are several factors that can impact your eyesight when you have diabetes.

woman using blood glucose meter

Blood Glucose (Blood Sugar)

When blood glucose is too high, it can affect the shape of the eye’s lens, causing blurry vision. High blood glucose can also damage the blood vessels in the eyes. 

Blood Glucose Management Understanding Hyperglycemia
Man checking blood pressure with cuff

Blood Pressure and Cholesterol

High blood pressure and high cholesterol can increase risk for eye disease and vision loss. Managing both will not only help the eyes but overall health as well.

Diabetes and High Blood Pressure Important Health Checks
Two senior men getting a walking workout outside

Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Regular exercise can help manage diabetes and improve eye health. Smoking also increases the risk of diabetes-related eye conditions, so reduce that risk by quitting smoking.

Healthy Living Tips Steps to Quit Smoking

From Our Eye Health Champions

Rachel has been living with type 1 diabetes since she was four years old. Her diabetes-related eye complications happened abruptly in 2019, after living with diabetes for nearly 25 years. Read her story and stories from our other eye health champions. 

Meet Our Eye Health Champions
My advice to people living with diabetes is to make your health a priority, get your eyes checked regularly, and make sure that they’re doing all the necessary tests at your eye exams.
Rachel

When to See an Eye Doctor Immediately

Please contact an eye doctor (optometrist, ophthalmologist) immediately if you’re experiencing any of the following:

  • Sudden difficulty reading or focusing
  • Sudden blurriness or double vision
  • Pressure or pain in your eyes
  • Presence of flashing lights, dark spots, or missing pieces in your vision
  • Sudden appearance of floaters (moving spots or lines)
  •  Suggest having this as at the bottom
A man struggles to read his phone due to diabetes related eye complications

Catching Diabetes Eye Complications Early

Your annual eye exam will look for signs of diabetes-related eye conditions, all of which can be largely prevented or minimized by maintaining healthy blood glucose (blood sugar) levels and consistently maintaining an A1C of less than 7 percent.

Learn About Eye Disease
A Black woman gets her eyes examined by a machine
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