Diabetic Eye Disease Can Affect People with Type I or Type II Diabetes
People affected by type I or Type II diabetes can both suffer from a complication of the eyes called diabetic retinopathy. The damage is caused to the blood vessels of the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. People with diabetes for a long time and without control over their sugar levels are likely to develop this eye problem.
People with diabetic eye disease may not have any symptoms in the early stages of their condition. As impediment advances, the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy may include:
- Dark rings or spots floating in the vision known as floaters.
- Blurred and fluctuating vision.
- Dark or impaired areas in the vision or impaired color vision.
- Loss of vision.
Diabetic eye disease affects both the eyes making diabetic eye disease treatment in Monterey, CA, essential.
When to Contact An Ophthalmologist or Optometrist
If you want to prevent vision loss, you must manage your diabetes carefully. You must visit the optometrist in Monterey, CA, for a yearly eye exam with dilation if you have diabetes of any type. A visit to the optometrist is essential even if your vision appears fine. Pregnancy can worsen diabetic retinopathy making your optometrist recommend frequent eye exams throughout the pregnancy.
You must contact your doctor without delay if you experience sudden changes to your vision to become blurred, spotty, or hazy.
Causes for Diabetic Eye Disease
The primary cause of diabetic eye disease is too much sugar in your blood, leading to the blockage of small blood vessels that nourish the retina. The lack of blood supply encourages the eye to attempt to grow new blood vessels. Unfortunately, the new blood vessels don’t develop properly and can leak quickly.
You can be affected by two types of diabetic retinopathy. There are nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
In nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, which is common and known as NDPR, the new blood vessels are not growing. The walls in the retina’s blood vessels are weakening. Small bulges protrude from the tinier vessels’ vessel walls to leak fluid and blood into the retina. The more enormous retinal walls start dilating to assume an irregular shape. NDPR progresses from mild to severe when more blood vessels become blocked.
Swelling may be noticed in the retina’s nerve fibers along with swelling in the central part of the macula to need diabetic eye disease treatment in Monterey, CA.
When NDPR advances, it progresses to a severe condition known as proliferative diabetic retinopathy. In this variety, the affected blood vessels close off to result in the growth of new abnormal blood vessels in the retina. The blood vessels can leak into the clear, jellylike substance filling the center of the eye.
Ultimately scar tissue stimulated by the new blood vessels growth can cause the retina to detach from the back of the eye. When the new blood vessels interfere with the normal flow of fluid out of the eye, it can build pressure inside the eye and damage the nerve carrying pictures from your eye to the brain to result in glaucoma.
Risk Factors Associated with Diabetic Eye Disease
If you are affected by diabetes, you can expect to develop diabetic retinopathy at some stage. The risk of developing this eye disease is aggravated by the duration for which you have diabetes, lacking control over your blood sugar level, high blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco use, pregnancy, and ethnicity.
Can Diabetic Eye Disease Be Prevented?
Prevention of diabetic eye disease is not always possible. However, if you have regular eye exams from Monterey optometric center, have reasonable control over your blood sugar and blood pressure, it is possible to prevent severe vision loss.
Proliferative diabetic retinopathy treatment will depend on the type of retinopathy you have and its severity. The goal of the treatment is to stop the progression of diabetic retinopathy. If you are affected by mild or moderate NDPR, you may not need treatment right away, but your doctor will continue to monitor your eyes to determine when you may need it.
If you are affected by macula edema, surgical treatment will be critical. Depending on the specific problems with your retina, doctors may use various options for the treatment. However, even after receiving treatment for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, eye exams must continue regularly, and additional treatment may be recommended at some point in the future.