Diabetes and Eye Care
What can I do to prevent diabetes eye problems?
Keep your blood glucose and blood pressure as close to normal as you can.
Have an eye care professional examine your eyes once a year. Have this exam even if
your vision is OK. The eye care professional will use drops to make the black part of
your eyes (pupils) bigger. This is called dilating your pupil, which allows the eye care
professional to see the back of your eye. Finding eye problems early and getting
treatment right away will help prevent more serious problems later on.
How can diabetes hurt the retinas of my eyes?
Retina damage happens slowly. Your retinas have tiny blood vessels that are easy to
damage. Having high blood glucose and high blood pressure for a long time can
damage these tiny blood vessels.
First, these tiny blood vessels swell and weaken. Some blood vessels then become
clogged and do not let enough blood through. At first, you might not have any loss of
sight from these changes. This is why you need to have a dilated eye exam once a year
even if your sight seems fine.
One of your eyes may be damaged more than the other. Or both eyes may have the
same amount of damage.
Diabetic retinopathy is the medical term for the most common diabetes eye problem.
What happens as diabetes retina problems get worse?
As diabetes retina problems get worse, new blood vessels grow. These new blood
vessels are weak. They break easily and leak blood into the vitreous of your eye. The
leaking blood keeps light from reaching the retina.
You may see floating spots or almost total darkness. Sometimes the blood will clear out
by itself. But you might need surgery to remove it.
Over the years, the swollen and weak blood vessels can form scar tissue and pull the
retina away from the back of the eye. If the retina becomes detached, you may see
floating spots or flashing lights.
You may feel as if a curtain has been pulled over part of what you are looking at. A
detached retina can cause loss of sight or blindness if you don't take care of it right
away.
Call your eye care professional right away if you are having any vision problems or if you
have had a sudden change in your vision.
What can I do about diabetes retina problems?
First, keep your blood glucose and blood pressure as close to normal as you can.
Your eye care professional may suggest laser treatment, which is when a light beam is
aimed into the retina of the damaged eye. The beam closes off leaking blood vessels. It
may stop blood and fluid from leaking into the vitreous. Laser treatment may slow the
loss of sight.
If a lot of blood has leaked into your vitreous and your sight is poor, your eye care
professional might suggest you have surgery called a vitrectomy. A vitrectomy removes
blood and fluids from the vitreous of your eye. Then clean fluid is put back into the eye.
The surgery can make your eyesight better.
How do I know if I have retina damage from diabetes?
You may not get any signs of diabetes retina damage or you may get one or more signs:
Blurry or double vision.
Rings, flashing lights, or blank spots.
Dark or floating spots.
Pain or pressure in one or both of your eyes.
Trouble seeing things out of the corners of your eyes.
What other eye problems can diabetes cause?
You can get two other eye problems—cataracts and glaucoma. People without diabetes
can get these eye problems, too. But people with diabetes get them more often and at a
younger age.
A cataract is a cloud over the lens of your eye, which is usually clear. The lens focuses
light onto the retina. A cataract makes everything you look at seem cloudy. You need
surgery to remove the cataract. During surgery your lens is taken out and a plastic lens,
like a contact lens, is put in. The plastic lens stays in your eye all the time. Cataract
surgery helps you see clearly again.
Glaucoma starts from pressure building up in the eye. Over time, this pressure damages
your eye’s main nerve—the optic nerve. The damage first causes you to lose sight from
the sides of your eyes. Treating glaucoma is usually simple. Your eye care professional
will give you special drops to use every day to lower the pressure in your eye. Or your
eye care professional may want you to have laser surgery.
