Early Detection Can Preserve Sight
Diabetes can contribute to various health problems, impacting your life every day. This chronic condition affects how the body produces or uses insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar. Uncontrolled blood sugar levels can weaken or damage cells, including the tiny blood vessels in your eyes.
People with diabetes have an increased risk of developing sight-threatening conditions. However, in many cases, vision loss caused by diabetes can be prevented with early detection and treatment.
Diabetic eye exams help monitor changes to your eye health, so you receive the care you need to preserve your sight.
How Diabetes Affects Sight
Blood sugar is your body’s energy source, but your cells need insulin to absorb or use blood sugar. Individuals with diabetes have problems producing or responding to insulin, leading to increased blood sugar levels that can damage the body.
If diabetes is left uncontrolled, these unbalanced blood sugar levels can cause blood vessels to weaken or grow abnormally, including the blood vessels in your eyes. As a result, blood vessels can swell or leak, decreasing blood flow to the eye.
Additionally, leaking blood vessels can also cause eye tissue to function poorly, causing diabetic eye disease and eventually vision loss.
What Is Diabetic Eye Disease?
People with diabetes are more likely to develop problems affecting eye health and sight. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to diabetic eye disease, a group of 4 eye disorders: cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, and glaucoma.
At Urban Optique & Eyecare, we use specialty technology during routine, comprehensive eye exams to assess the health of your eyes, both inside and out. This allows us to detect signs of diabetic eye disease during early stages, before vision has been affected. Early detection leads to more available treatment options and better outcomes.
A cataract can develop in one or both eyes. It’s a cloudy or opaque spot in the natural lens of the eye, responsible for focusing light for clear vision.
The lens is mainly made of proteins. When these proteins break down, they clump together to form a cataract, rescuing the lens’s flexibility and transparency. Over time, cataracts can worsen or grow, reducing vision and leading to blindness.
Cataracts can result from natural changes due to aging; however, individuals with diabetes are more likely to develop cataracts and may develop them at a younger age.
Diabetic retinopathy occurs when damaged blood vessels in the retina (the light-sensitive tissue lining the inside of the eye) swell and leak. Abnormal blood vessels then grow under the retina, decreasing blood flow and reducing vision. Diabetic retinopathy typically has no symptoms during the early stages.
Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy can include blurred or hazy vision, difficulty seeing at night, an empty or dark spot in central vision, or seeing an increase in floaters or spots.
Treatment for diabetic retinopathy focuses on stopping leakage and reducing abnormal blood vessel growth. Controlling diabetes with medication, exercise, and diet can help decrease swelling and reduce symptoms. When the disease progresses, it can be treated with:
Diabetic macular edema is the swelling of the macula, the oval-shaped center of the retina. The macula is responsible for central vision, fine details, and color vision.
When the blood vessels supplying the retina leak, the fluid causes the macula to thicken and swell. When macula function is impaired, it can cause blurred or wavy central vision, faded or washed-out colors, and difficulty reading.
Treatment aims to stop fluid leaking, therefore reducing swelling. In addition to managing diabetes as a whole, additional treatments for macular edema can include:
- Anti-VEGF or steroid injections
- Laser treatment
- Medicated eye drops
- Vitrectomy
Glaucoma causes progressive damage to the optic nerve, which is responsible for sending visual information from the eye to the brain. Over time, glaucoma can lead to peripheral (side) vision loss and even result in blindness.
There are many forms of glaucoma, but the most common in the US is open-angle glaucoma. Excess fluid in the eye increases pressure on the optic nerve, slowly causing the nerve fibers to deteriorate.
With diabetes, the extra fluid results from damaged blood vessels leaking inside the eye. Diabetes doubles your chances of developing glaucoma.
Book Your Diabetic Eye Exam
The American Diabetes Association recommends annual dilated eye exams to help prevent vision loss. Diabetic eye exams focus on eye health issues and education for people managing diabetes.
At Urban Optique & Eyecare, our diabetic eye exams include key diagnostic tests, such as Optomap retinal imaging, to evaluate the health of your eye and track any changes over time. This allows us to detect signs of diabetic eye diseases before your vision is impacted.
If you’re living with diabetes and it has been more than 12 months since your last exam, book your diabetic eye exam with us today.
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My family switched to Urban Optique in 2025 and we are very happy that we did. Dr Simms is professional and caring. She takes her time with patients.
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I had a fantastic experience at Urban Eyecare! Huge thanks to Dr. Huynh for such a thorough exam and to Varshali for being so incredibly helpful throughout my visit. They both made the process seamless and enjoyable. Highly recommend this team!
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Visit Our Location
Find us in the Chandler Heights Marketplace, next to ToScany’s Coal Oven Pizza. There is plenty of parking available.
Our Address
- 4960 S. Gilbert Rd, Ste 11
- Chandler, AZ 85249
Contact Information
- Phone: 480-802-7170
- Fax: 480-802-3812
- Email: sheryl@drsimms.com
Hours of Operation
Closed from 1:30 to 2:00 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Our Practice
Eye Exams
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Urban Optique & Eyecare
- 4960 S. Gilbert Rd, Ste 11
- Chandler, AZ 85249
- Phone: 480-802-7170
- Fax: 480-802-3812
- Email: sheryl@drsimms.com