EYE CARE Why should I get my eyes dilated? A:I get this question all the time! The answer is you should get your eyes dilated as often as advised by your eye doctor. Usually we like to dilate your eyes every year or two. Some people need to get dilated more often if there's a health condition in the eye that needs to be monitored more closely. Dr. Kynndyl Dilation is when we use eye drops to make your pupils larger. Your pupils are the black circles in the center of the eye where light enters. Your pupils change size throughout the day based on how bright or dark it is. When we shine lights into the eyes, your pupils will shrink. As a result, small pupils make it hard to see into the back of the eye. We dilate pupils in order to get a complete view of your retinal health. There are a lot of different health conditions that can affect your eyes and possibly cause vision loss. Often, we can see changes in the back of your eye before it affects your vision, and treatment can be started to prevent or slow vision loss. The list of conditions we can find in the eye is too long for this article, but it doesn't just include eye diseases. We can see changes from systemic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. That's why it's important to get your eyes dilated regularly. Even kids can be dilated! Not only do the drops help to assess their retinal health, but the dilating drops also relax their focusing system. This helps us to get a more accurate prescription for glasses. We offer comprehensive eye health exams at Whelan Eye Care, so if it's been more than a year since your last eye health exam call our office. Giannonatti Optometrist WHELAN Eye Care 1900 DIVISION ST. W, BEMIDJI, MN (218) 759-1430 WHELANEYECARE.COM EYE CARE Why should I get my eyes dilated? A:I get this question all the time! The answer is you should get your eyes dilated as often as advised by your eye doctor. Usually we like to dilate your eyes every year or two. Some people need to get dilated more often if there's a health condition in the eye that needs to be monitored more closely. Dr. Kynndyl Dilation is when we use eye drops to make your pupils larger. Your pupils are the black circles in the center of the eye where light enters. Your pupils change size throughout the day based on how bright or dark it is. When we shine lights into the eyes, your pupils will shrink. As a result, small pupils make it hard to see into the back of the eye. We dilate pupils in order to get a complete view of your retinal health. There are a lot of different health conditions that can affect your eyes and possibly cause vision loss. Often, we can see changes in the back of your eye before it affects your vision, and treatment can be started to prevent or slow vision loss. The list of conditions we can find in the eye is too long for this article, but it doesn't just include eye diseases. We can see changes from systemic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. That's why it's important to get your eyes dilated regularly. Even kids can be dilated! Not only do the drops help to assess their retinal health, but the dilating drops also relax their focusing system. This helps us to get a more accurate prescription for glasses. We offer comprehensive eye health exams at Whelan Eye Care, so if it's been more than a year since your last eye health exam call our office. Giannonatti Optometrist WHELAN Eye Care 1900 DIVISION ST. W, BEMIDJI, MN (218) 759-1430 WHELANEYECARE.COM