Diabetic Eye Care

What is Diabetic Eye Disease?

Diabetic eye diseases refer to various eye conditions that occur in the eyes of people diagnosed with diabetes. There are two main types of diabetic eye disease:

• Diabetic Retinopathy: Diabetic retinopathy is the most common type of diabetic eye disease. It occurs when there’s damage to the blood vessels in the retina, which is in the back of your eye. This condition can affect people with both types of diabetes. The longer you wait to treat your diabetes, the more likely you are to develop diabetic retinopathy and suffer life-altering complications, such as blindness.
• Diabetic Macular Edema (DME): Diabetic macular edema occurs as a result of diabetic retinopathy. If you’re suffering from diabetic retinopathy, a fair amount of pressure is placed on your retina, causing the macula to swell. 

Other types of diabetic eye diseases also include cataracts and glaucoma, both of which can cause partial or total vision loss.

What Causes Diabetic Eye Disease?

Diabetes refers to the improper production of insulin in your pancreas. Insulin is essential to breaking down sugar and converting it into energy. If you’re suffering from diabetes, your blood sugar levels are always too high.

Too much sugar in the blood can lead to blockages in the blood vessels that nourish the retina. This might cut off the retina’s blood supply entirely, causing the retina to generate new blood vessels. Without proper blood flow, these new blood vessels can't grow properly and can leak.

What are the Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy?

In the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, you might not experience any symptoms. However, you should get in touch with an optometrist at Bronx Eye Associates if you experience any of the following symptoms:

• Spots in your vision (floaters)
• Blurred vision
• Fluctuating vision
• Impaired color vision
• Dark areas in your vision
• Blindness
• Glaucoma
• Detachment of the retina from the back of the eye

How Do You Treat Diabetic Retinopathy?

There are various ways of treating diabetic retinopathy. If you’ve been diagnosed with the disease but haven’t developed symptoms, your optometrist at Bronx Eye Associates can give you advice to better manage your diabetes, though you should refer to your primary care physician.

However, if your diabetic retinopathy is advanced, your optometrist might recommend any of the following:

• Panretinal photocoagulation: Shrinks abnormal blood vessels
• Photocoagulation: Stops or slows down leakage in the eye
• Vitrectomy: Removes blood and scar tissue from the middle of the eye
• Injection of medicine into the eye

Call Bronx Eye Associates or go online today to minimize your chances of contracting a diabetic eye disease.