Medically Reviewed by Jack Abrams, MD
The team at Abrams Eye Institute urges patients to schedule annual appointments to make sure their eyes are healthy. Regular eye care appointments also help build a baseline that eye doctors like Dr. Jack Abrams, Dr. Tapan Shah, and Dr. Christopher DePalo can use to track any changes to your eyes that require further attention.
Don’t Wait for Eye Issues to Get Worse to Get Help from Your Ophthalmologist
While the team of ophthalmologists at Abrams stresses regular checkups, we also urge patients not to wait for an appointment for symptoms and changes to vision that suggest something needs immediate attention. The following list provides a good place to start, when considering if you need immediate attention from an ophthalmologist.
Seven Signs That You Need to See an Ophthalmologist
- Sudden Loss of vision or decreased vision in one or both eyes – This could include temporary challenges that go away and come back later. Loss of vision doesn’t have to be permanent to be a serious issue.
- Seeing sudden spots, flashes of light – These challenges can come from something simple like going in and outdoors in bright light, but they could be something more serious.
- Seeing lightning streaks or jagged lines of light, distortions or wavy lines – Similar to spots and flashes, these symptoms may come and go. Even if they do go away for a while, get your eyes looked at immediately.
- Having wavy or watery vision, or seeing blurry faces, halos around lights, double vision. – Watery vision can come about from dust or other irritations, but it’s best to know for sure with an exam. Some of these issues can also come from LASIK surgery. The Abrams team has had great success fixing LASIK procedures that were done poorly by other eye surgeons.
- Changes in your field of vision, such as shadows, black spots, or blurriness—The Abrams team monitors longer-developing changes through exams, but if you see changes happening quickly, see us immediately.
- Having curtain-like loss of vision – Another change that can happen quickly and needs to be taken seriously.
- Changes in your color vision – This may require patients to spend extra attention to detect, but even the slightest changes in color perception warrant caution and medical attention.
If you feel an eye issue is an emergency, don’t wait to schedule an appointment; get yourself emergency assistance immediately.
Changes in vision can often be overlooked and ignored, and some patients may not want to seek medical attention. Some patients may also feel like they’re too busy to take the time to have their eyes looked at, but vision challenges can often be dangerous situations that only get worse with time. The team at Abrams assures you that we want our patients to feel completely comfortable coming to us with any issue, as we’re just as relieved as you are when something that seems like a problem turns out to be not a big deal at all.
We also urge patients to apply the same care and caution related to eye emergencies with friends and family. We know that many people don’t want to be bothersome and can ignore eye problems. If you know someone who’s hesitant to get their eyes looked at, you can always come with them to an appointment with their ophthalmologist to help them feel more comfortable.
Abrams Eye Institute Can Help
The ophthalmologist team at Abrams Eye Institute can help you maintain good eye care with regular eye exams to ensure your eyes are healthy. They can also assist you with any eye surgery needs you may have, such as laser cataract surgery and laser LASIK surgery alternatives. Call Abrams at 702-304-9494 to learn how our award-winning service can help you.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.