What are conditions that can affect a child’s vision and the potential for learning? What is Amblyopia? What is Strabismus? What about Convergence Insufficiency? These are serious conditions of a child’s eye that need addressed. Did you know that 80% of learning comes through vision? The proverb that states, ”A picture is worth a thousand words” is true! But what if a child cannot visually see or process those words?

Let’s explore Amblyopia , or “lazy eye”. It affects 3-5% of the population, enough that the federal government funded children’s yearly eye exams into the Accountable Care Act or ObamaCare health initiative. Amblyopia occurs when the anatomical structure of the eye is normal, but the “brain -eye connection” is malfunctioning. In other words, it is like plugging in your computer to the outlet and the power never gets to the computer all the way.

Amblyopia need to be caught early in life, in fact if it is not caught and treated early (before age 8) it can lead to...

The American Academy of Ophthalmology has recommendations for how often adults need to get their eyes examined and those recommendations vary according to the level of risk you have for eye disease.

For people who are not at elevated risk the recommendations are:

• Baseline eye exam at age 40.
• Ages 40-54 every 2-4 years.
• Ages 55-64 every 1-3 years.
• Ages 65 and older every 1-2 years.

Those recommendations are just for people who have NO added risk factors. If you are diabetic or have a family history of certain eye diseases then you need exams more frequently.  

As you can see, the guidelines recommend more frequent exams as you get older. Here are the Top 4 reasons why you need your eyes examined more frequently as you get older:

1. Glaucoma

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the United States. It has no symptoms when it begins and the only way to detect glaucoma is through a thorough eye exam. Glaucoma gets more and more common as you get...