Before you assume you need a visit to an eye doctor to renew your prescription for contacts or glasses, learn what an eye exam will tell you, how often you really need an eye exam, and whether an in-person visit with an eye doctor is required. You may discover that renewing your prescription for eyeglasses or contacts via an online eye exam will help you get your prescription faster and easier than you had imagined.
By Joelle Klein
Reviewed by Quinn Wang, MD
Have you ever found yourself fresh out of contact lenses, searching your travel kit for that last pair you’re sure you have stashed somewhere, only to discover that you can’t find them and you can’t order new contacts without an eye exam? Patients are often surprised that an annual eye exam is required to renew contact lenses and every two years to renew an eyeglass prescription. Here’s what you need to know about how often you need an eye exam and whether an in-person visit is the only way to go.
First, let’s get clear about what an eye exam will tell you: 1) how well you can see (i.e. what is your vision) and 2) how healthy your eyes are (i.e. do your eyes show any signs of disease.) If you have vision problems, the most common cause is refractive error. This means that your vision can be improved via corrective eyewear such as eyeglasses or contact lenses. In this case, your eye doctor will give you a prescription for glasses or contacts. If your eyes show signs of eye disease such as diabetic eye disease or glaucoma, you may be placed on a strict observation and/or treatment regimen.
Vision and eye health are a vital part of overall health. Surprisingly, while nearly two-thirds of American adults report having eye problems, only a small percentage of those people see an eye doctor regularly. The reason for this may be because, according to an American Optometric Association (AOA) survey, about one-third of adults admit that they don’t know how to take care of their eyes. Hint: it starts with regular eye exams.
The first thing to get straight is that for most people, “regular” does not necessarily mean yearly. “There is a perception that annual routine eye exams are a healthcare must,” says cataract surgeon and CEO and co-founder of Quadrant Eye Dr. Quinn Wang. “It’s true that people who wear glasses and contact lenses need eye exams every 1 to 2 years to get their corrective eyewear prescriptions renewed. However, for eye health purposes, healthy adults with no risk factors for eye disease—including, but are not limited to existing eye disease/trauma, family history of eye disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, and metastatic cancer—need only a handful of dilated eye exams before age 40.
Guidelines published by the American Association of Ophthalmology (AAO) state that “routine comprehensive annual adult eye examination in individuals under 40 unnecessarily escalates the cost of eye care…” and is not needed unless the individual is at high risk of developing certain eye diseases. Importantly, all adults should have a baseline eye exam at age 40, if they haven’t had one previously.
How often you need an eye exam will depend on your vision, age, race, family history, and medical history.
Your baseline eye exam will help your eye doctor determine the frequency with which you should schedule a regular, comprehensive eye exam. Here are the guidelines per the AAO:
With about 75 percent of the adult population sporting glasses or contacts, most people are currently required to make a visit to their eye doctor every 1 to 2 years in order to get their prescriptions renewed. It is important to note, however, that these in-person exams are not always medically necessary.
For example, if a young and healthy eye patient has had the same prescription for years, there often is no medical need for this person to be fully re-examined for a simple prescription renewal. However, in-person eye exams are always necessary for all patients with acute or longstanding eye problems; this is because such patients need regular management and/or treatment.
For low-risk patients, a quick vision check and eye health screen is a more practical and efficient solution than a complete in-person visit, which requires significant planning and time off work. And fortunately, these types of vision checks and eye health screens can be conducted online. To be clear, a low-risk patient is someone with a stable and relatively minor refractive error who is having no changes in vision and who has been dilated within the last 5 years.
“QE allows patients to skip unnecessary visits, therefore saving time, money, and stress. We can check patients’ vision and also screen them for serious eye issues,” says Dr. Wang. “Patient safety is at the core of everything we do, so we always alert patients if and when an in-person exam might be necessary.”
Taking good care of your eyes and your overall health can go a long way toward preventing age-related eye conditions. Eating an eye-healthy diet that includes lots of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables slows down the formation of cataracts and reduces your risk of macular degeneration. Getting plenty of exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can prevent diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure--both of which affect vision and eye health. And while you may not be able to prevent the presbyopia (and need for reading glasses) that comes with getting older, your eyecare professional can make sure you get the correct vision correction to see clearly.
The sun’s rays contain damaging ultraviolet (UV) light. The same UV rays that burn your skin and lead to skin cancer also affect your eyes. Staring directly into strong sunlight can damage the retina. And repeated sun exposure over time can lead to cataracts, benign growths on the eyes and even eye cancer. Protect your eyes anytime you’re in the sun by wearing sunglasses that block both UVA and UVB rays.
Some people claim that by correcting your vision with prescription glasses or contacts, you’re weakening your eyes—which then leads to worse vision. Their “proof” is that after wearing your corrective prescription for a while, your vision appears blurrier when you’re not wearing it. But that’s likely because you’re now used to seeing the world in clear, crisp detail—and in contrast, your uncorrected vision appears fuzzier. Getting the proper vision correction for your eyes is essential for your eye health. Don’t try to tough it out if you can’t see clearly. Visit your eyecare professional for an in-person or virtual vision screening.
Not having a bright enough light may make it harder to clearly see the words on the page, but it won’t damage your eyes or permanently impact your vision. Because you’re straining to see, you might get a headache or other symptoms of eyestrain. If you want to read in bed without illuminating the entire bedroom, get a reading light that provides just enough brightness to see your book clearly.
LASIK surgery corrects your distance vision only, so people who are nearsighted benefit most from it. But LASIK doesn’t affect the lens of the eye, the part that helps you focus up close. As you get older, changes to the lens impact your ability to see close up. So even if you have LASIK in your 20s or 30s, you’ll most likely still need reading glasses by the time you hit your 40s or 50s.
Having your face right up next to the bright screen may give you a headache or even cause some temporary eyestrain or fatigue, but it won’t damage your vision. Children are more prone to this behavior than adults—which may be because children can focus close up better than adults can. But if your child can only see the television clearly when sitting close (and has to hold other things close to see them clearly), they may be nearsighted. Taking your child to an eyecare professional for a vision exam will help determine if they need glasses to see clearly.
Most eyecare professionals recommend removing—and thoroughly cleaning—your contacts every night. Even if you use extend-wear lenses that are approved for use a week or month at a time, it’s always safer to give your eyes a nightly break. Your contacts are more likely to accumulate bacteria when you leave them in 24/7, and that can lead to eye infections. Sleeping in your contacts also prevents essential oxygen from getting to your corneas. If you must sleep in your contacts, make it a once-in-a-while event and ask your eyecare provider about contacts that are specially formulated to let more oxygen through.
Carrots (along with other vegetables like sweet potatoes and dark leafy greens) contain high amounts of beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential for eye health, and a deficiency of the nutrient is the leading cause of childhood blindness in developing countries. In the U.S., vitamin A deficiency is rare, and few people get so little it could impact their eyesight. Also, there’s no evidence that beta-carotene affects the sharpness of your vision or can prevent near or farsightedness. So while getting lots of beta-carotene in your diet may help keep your eyes healthy, no amount of carrots is going to actually improve your vision and allow you to toss out your glasses or contacts.
The jury is still out on how effective blue light glasses are for eyestrain. One recent study found they made no difference in eyestrain symptoms during a two-hour-long computer task. But some experts feel they may help alleviate eyestrain and fatigue during prolonged, cumulative screen time. Either way, blue glasses alone won’t solve the problem of too much screen time. The best way to reduce eyestrain is to limit screen time and take frequent breaks when you do need to spend several hours at your computer.
The jury is still out on how effective blue light glasses are for eyestrain. One recent study found they made no difference in eyestrain symptoms during a two-hour-long computer task. But some experts feel they may help alleviate eyestrain and fatigue during prolonged, cumulative screen time. Either way, blue glasses alone won’t solve the problem of too much screen time. The best way to reduce eyestrain is to limit screen time and take frequent breaks when you do need to spend several hours at your computer.
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