How can an eye doctor detect health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes through a routine, comprehensive eye examination?

Actually, not every eye exam performed by an eye doctor will indicate if a patient has an underlying systemic health condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, leukemia or other blood dyscrasia, cancer, arthritis, etc. A thorough eye examination demands time and care, and must include not only the determination of glasses prescription, but intense examination of the ocular health of the eye that must include dilation of the patient's pupils with drops. A Comprehensive Eye Examination should always include a refraction to determine spectacle prescription, a detailed case history, biomicroscopy to examine the health of the outside of the eye at the microscopic level, ocular neurological testing, visual field (peripheral vision) testing, glaucoma testing and dilation of he pupils. We are able to detect systemic disease because the eye is comprised of the same tissues that make up the rest of the body. For example, the retina and optic nerve is made of the same ...  more