Elderly eye health, Elderly eye health – encouraging your parents to get their eyes checked, The Eye Place

Elderly eye health – encouraging your parents to get their eyes checked

Just like physiotherapy and regular doctor appointments, elderly eye health is an important aspect to growing older.

We know it can be difficult to encourage your elderly parents to get their eyes regularly checked.

However, we also know it’s of the utmost importance for older people to stay on top of their eye tests.

Below our team has discussed why it can be difficult to get elderly parents to the optometrist, and why it’s vital to their eye health.

Why it can be hard to encourage the elderly to get their eyes tested

While growing old is inevitable, many people don’t expect – or want – to be reliant on others, particularly their adult children.

Helping to take care of your parent’s health can be quite overwhelming for both of you.

And often the elderly neglect their eye health because they don’t realise how quickly things can change.

Whether their eyes have deteriorated when they were younger, or they’re ignoring signs of poor eye health, the optometrist is often the specialist who is forgotten!

While it can be difficult to encourage your parents to book an optometrist appointment, it’s vital you explain the importance of eye health.

Common eye conditions in the elderly

It is inevitable as we age, our overall eyesight will generally deteriorate. Often those 60 and over will require prescription reading glasses in addition to other prescription lenses.

Unfortunately, difficulty reading isn’t the only potential issue that may arise in the eyes of our elderly loved ones.

Common problems also include:

Why it's important to have regular eye tests

Regular eye tests are important at all ages, but it becomes more important with increased age. Like any health condition we see a significant increase in issues relating to eye health in the elderly.

A simple eye test can pick up many of the eye diseases listed as well as general health issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

For the elderly in particular it is important that we don’t allow them to dismiss lessoning or irregular vision as just “old age”. An eye test can ensure we are able undertake prevention and early intervention measures should the need arise.

Of course, eye testing will also establish the need for new or changes to prescription glasses or contact lenses.

It is essential that if one of your parents has prescription lenses that they are correct and regularly checked.

Ultimately, this will improve their quality of life by reducing their risk of falls and minimizing the impact of any eye conditions detected.

 

If you have an elderly parent who is nervous or hesitant to get their eyes tested, we encourage you to book an appointment with our team.

Our optometrist, Adam will conduct a gentle but thorough eye examination which can offer you, and your parent peace of mind.

Book an appointment or speak to a member of our team to learn more.