Diabetic Eye Exams in Centre Wellington

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Special Eye Exams for Patients With Diabetes

Our patients with diabetes have several interrelated health issues. Living with diabetes requires help from a trusted health care team. Our optometrists look for the typical and serious changes affecting the eyes of patients with diabetes.

Your retina is a light-reactive network of cells in the back of your eye, converting light and images into brain signals. These cells need a steady, even, and oxygenated supply of blood. But when that’s interrupted, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema often result.

Diabetes interrupts the blood flow to cells in the back of the eyes, which affects your retina’s function. Changes in blood pressure due to tiny sugar blockages can starve your retina of oxygen. These blockages can cause blood vessels to warp, sprout, or burst under pressure, which can lead to further ocular health complications.

In addition to diabetic eye diseases, diabetes can also increase the risk of developing other eye diseases like cataracts.

If you have diabetes, please request a diabetic eye exam and let us take care of your eyes.

Diabetic Eye Diseases

Nonproliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (NPDR)

Nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) is the first phase of diabetic retinopathy, occurring when your retinal blood vessels respond to sugar buildup by leaking. Fluid buildup between the retina’s cellular layers can result in swelling of the macula, the part of the retina responsible for detailed central vision.

As sugar blockages cut off blood flow, the blood vessels in the retina begin to bulge. Sometimes, these blockages starve the macula’s cells of oxygen, leading to a condition called macular ischemia.

Blurred vision is one of the usual symptoms of NPDR. NPDR can also advance to a more severe stage, called proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).

PDR comes with the existing symptoms of NPDR, and a complicated new symptom called neovascularization, the growth of new blood vessels. These new retinal vessels fan out to relieve the pressure in the retinal system.

However, these new vessels are weak and unstable, often breaking and leaking into the central water chamber, which can discolour your vision. This process also creates scar tissue, which interrupts the smooth retinal surface, impacting your eyesight.

Macular swelling from retinopathy can trigger diabetic macular edema (DME), which is the swelling of the macula.

When the macula swells, you may experience vision loss, washed out, or blurry vision. DME becomes worse without treatment and can develop at various stages of diabetic retinopathy.

Patients with diabetes are twice as likely to develop glaucoma as patients without diabetes. The retina’s blood vessels can leak into the main water chamber of the eye. Those leaks can interfere with natural drainage passages near the lenses of your eye. This drainage block can cause increased intraocular pressure, slowly damaging the optic nerve, resulting in glaucoma.

Retinal Imaging for Diabetic Patients

Patients with diabetes require specific eye exams that carefully factor in their unique risks. We use retinal imaging to scan for diabetic retinopathy as early as possible. Retinopathy can endanger the health of a patient’s sight, so extra care goes a long way.

We can scan for many eye problems, not just diabetic eye concerns. This imaging technology provides us with the tools necessary for early detection that can save your eyesight.

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Our Location

Centre Wellington, Ontario

We’re eager to see all of our patients, but please confirm an appointment before visiting. Booking ahead is the safest measure for ensuring a qualified staff member is available to help you from start to finish.

You can find us on Beatty Line in beautiful historic Fergus, Ontario.

Our Address

6420 Beatty Line North Suite 102
Fergus, ON N1M 2W3

Contact Information

Hours Of Operation

Monday
9 AM4 PM
Tuesday
9 AM5 PM
Wednesday
9 AM4 PM
Thursday
9 AM6 PM
Friday
9 AM1 PM
Saturday
Closed
Sunday
Closed

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