How often do I need an eye exam as I grow older?

As patients age, it's important to increase the frequency of eye exams. Ophthalmologist and Sharecare Advisory Board member David Demartini, MD explains in this video.

Transcript

00:00

The frequency with which you should have an eye exam depends on your age. [LIGHTHEARTED MUSIC]

00:11

Usually at a younger age, it's only for the first year or two. And then as one gets older, it becomes

00:19

a little bit more frequent. Young children are usually examined within the first two years of life, mainly by how well they see

00:28

and whether their eyes are straight and do not deviate. As they get older, usually within beginning of school,

00:37

they'll have another eye exam to make sure that vision is developing, because if vision doesn't

00:43

develop well in the first few years, it can often lead to a lazy eye, which will never develop.

00:50

So in the first few years of life, we usually recommend an exam by the second year

00:56

and then before school. Then, usually it's about every four years or so until they get to be 20.

01:05

And then usually it's even less, assuming that nothing has been found. If there's been any abnormalities of the eye,

01:14

such as the need for glasses or the eyes are crossing or there's some other medical condition that could relate

01:22

to the eyes, then we always ask patients to come in much more frequently, even once a year, just to be sure that everything is stable and healthy.

01:32

By the time you're 60 or 62, we usually recommend yearly eye exams because most eye disease

01:39

comes along when one gets to be a senior citizen, everything from glaucoma, which is too much pressure in the eye,

01:48

to cataracts, which is the clouding of the lens inside the eye. So for that reason, most of our practice

01:56

is senior citizens because that's when eye disease starts to become more of a problem. [HEARTBEAT] [BEEPS]