If you recently received bad news about your blood pressure, you need to do all you can to keep healthy. You may schedule regular physical exams with your doctor to monitor your blood pressure levels. Along with seeing your regular doctor for care, you also want to visit an optometrist for a thorough eye exam. An eye exam can help discover problems related to high blood pressure like hypertension retinoapathy.
What Is Hypertension Retinopathy?
High blood pressure can slowly thicken and narrow the tiny blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive membrane in the back of your eye. The thick and narrow blood vessels can eventually cause hypertension retinopathy in some people.
Hypertension retinoapathy develops when the retina doesn't receive enough blood to be healthy. Instead of entering the retina, blood becomes restricted inside the blood vessels. The retina will gradually deteriorate or weaken from the lack of blood.
Hypertension retinoapathy can cause a number of visual problems for you, including blurred and double vision. The blood vessels in your retinas may hemorrhage, or leak blood, as well. If the condition becomes worse, it may affect the optic nerve.
It can take a while before high blood pressure causes hypertension retinopathy in your vision. But if you remain proactive with your vision, you can help prevent hypertension retinoapathy.
How Can Different Eye Exams Help You?
Having your eyes examined by an optometrist is one of the most proactive steps you can take to prevent hypertension retinoapathy. An eye doctor can use one of many eye exams to determine the status of your retinas, including retinal scans and comprehensive eye exams. The exams can provide more details about the condition of your blood vessels, retinas, and optic nerve.
Some eye doctors use special cameras to examine the tissues in the back of the eye. Camera-operated procedures, such as fluorescein angiography, can help detect hemorrhaging around the retina and optic nerve. The camera footage may also allow an eye doctor to monitor your eyes for any changes that will affect your vision in the future. High blood pressure may also cause macular edema, or blistering (swelling) of the macula.
No matter what type of eye exam you undergo, you must do a few things to prepare for it. For example, an eye doctor may ask you to get sufficient sleep the night before your appointment. If your eyes are tired, they may not respond well to the tests. An optometrist will provide more details about your eye exams when you contact them.
For more information about hypertension retinopathy or high blood pressure, consult an optometrist or company such as Mather Vision Group.
There are a number of medical professionals who you should be seeing on a regular basis, but one that tends to be forgotten about is the optometrist. Even if you do not have trouble seeing clearly, it's a good idea to get an eye exam every year or two, just to ensure nothing is amiss. After all, optometrists do more than prescribe glasses. They can also diagnose conditions like glaucoma and cataracts, which are easier to manage when detected early.
If you would like to learn a little more about what happens when you see the optometrist and why this is so important, read the articles on this website. They're all dedicated to optometry and eye health.