Recently, I had a gentleman come for an annual wellness visit. He hadn’t had one for quite some time, and I could tell he was a little uncertain about what to expect. He was patient while we reviewed his family history, and tolerant while we talked about diet and exercise, but he’d had enough when I asked about the last time he’d been to the dentist and the eye doctor. “What is this about?” he asked me, somewhat exasperated. I suppose people don’t usually expect to go to their primary care doctor and have her nag them about their teeth or their eyes!
But both teeth and eyes are really important to your overall well being. There is ample evidence linking poor dental health to other issues, like heart disease and preterm births. The eyes provide clues to many systemic diseases, such as autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, cancers, various infections, genetic conditions like Marfan’s syndrome, and of course more mundane issues like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Naturally, I harp on people with diabetes to get to the eye doctor almost every time I see them! Diabetes can damage small blood vessels, and in the eye this damage may lead to blindness.
Even if you don’t notice any problems with your vision, it’s important to see your eye doctor periodically. Diseases like glaucoma can be silent, and the visual loss so gradual that you don’t notice it until it is advanced. Glaucoma can be successfully treated, but only if it is detected! Macular degeneration is also silent in the early stages, but can be detected by a careful eye exam by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.
Most of us understand instinctively that we would face additional challenges if we had poor vision. There would be no hopping in the car to drive to the store. There would be no picking up a magazine to leaf through in the waiting room. There would be no recognizing an old friend from across the street. We might not consider that these circumstances contribute to increased social isolation and depression, or increased risk of injuries. Some research links vision loss, like hearing loss, with dementia, although the nature of that relationship isn’t clear. Nevertheless, there are more than ample reasons to be concerned about your vision!
In addition to those regular trips to the eye doctor, there are some steps you can take to protect your eyes. Keep your chronic medical conditions, like diabetes and high blood pressure, under control. Don’t smoke or vape. Wear sun glasses with UVB protection. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Don’t drink much alcohol. And of course, protect your eyes from injury: over a million Americans live with significant vision loss in at least one eye because of eye trauma.
My answer to my patient’s very reasonable question was simple: anything that impacts your well being deserves consideration from your doctor. And that most definitely includes your eyes!
Debra Johnston, MD. is part of The Prairie Doc® team of physicians and currently practices as a Family Medicine Doctor at Avera Medical Group in Brookings, South Dakota. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Threads. Prairie Doc Programming includes On Call with the Prairie Doc®, a medical Q&A show (streaming on Facebook), 2 podcasts, and a Radio program (on SDPB), providing health information based on science, built on trust.
