Is your father safe to be driving?

By age 50, everyone should be visiting their optometrist every two years.

The new coalition Government late last year jumped in with an excellent plan to provide one free annual visit to the optician/ optometrist for all Supergold card holders.

This is really good news. It creates an opportunity for all Supergold card holders with potential low vision – age-related degenerative eye disease – to have their sight monitored.

All too often, if a person feels their sight is reasonable, the possibility of eye deterioration is ignored. So, when did your father last have his eyes checked? Should your father still be driving?

Did you know 1.5 million people in New Zealand are at risk of agerelated eye diseases? For example, macular degeneration is an agerelated sight loss disease and the prevalence increases with age.

It is estimated that there were possibly 160,000 people with macular degeneration and it is forecasted this will increase 13.6 per cent by 2026.

In a recent survey of a randomly selected group of people with glaucoma, 80 per cent did not suspect they had glaucoma before being diagnosed.

The remaining 20 per cent had family relatives with glaucoma, which encouraged them to be tested.

In the past 10 years, both macular degeneration and glaucoma can be managed so much better than ever before, therefore it is important to have your eyes checked earlier rather than later.

Age-related sight loss can start earlier than 50 years of age, but from 50 onwards it can be picked up by optometrists when people have their eyes checked.

We all make appointments to have a haircut, visit the dentist and some have regular treatment for their feet, hearing, cholesterol or even bone density.

And there are even people who do regular exercise – all part of one’s personal medical self-care.

But if you do not wear glasses, how often is eye care included in your self-care health programme?

It is estimated there will be 864,000 people in New Zealand who are unaware they have age-related low-vision impairment.

Although low vision cannot be cured or corrected, it can be controlled and managed so that the problem doesn’t get worse – at least not so quickly – by medication. This is why getting your eyes checked regularly is critical, as this is often the time when eye diseases can be first identified.

It is recommended that by age 50, everyone should be visiting their optometrist every two years for a check-up.

In this way the diseases can be picked up at an early stage and where possible medication to control deterioration can be provided.

Optometrists are qualified to provide all aspects of primary eye healthcare.

They perform eye exams and vision tests, prescribe and dispense glasses and diagnose eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and conjunctivitis.

Sight is probably the most important sense we have. We need to do everything possible to look after it.

Sight affects so many of our other activities. We take sight for granted and do not recognise its importance – until the loss of sight is imminent.

Have you checked that your father, or your mother, have been having regular eye checks for the past two decades so that when it comes time to re-sit the driver test at age 80 they do not fail?

If the current politicians keep their word, there will be no excuse for all Supergold cardholders not to have their eyes checked annually.