Oct. 14, 2025

This piece is sponsored by Vance Thompson Vision.

It’s easy to take our vision for granted. We use it every day, but how often do we take the time to really appreciate it? Thankfully, October is Vision Awareness Month, a time to reflect on just how amazing our eyes are.

“If you have the gift of waking up and being able to see, once you lose that ability, you realize how much that impacts your life,” said Dr. Larae Zimprich at Vance Thompson Vision. “This is a good time to recognize how important the visits, follow-ups, surgeries and the connections that we make with patients are.”

Vision awareness is important not just for gratitude but also so that you can be on the lookout for potential diseases and how they may impact this precious gift.

Importance of your routine eye exam

Getting a routine eye exam is the easiest way to find out what’s going on with your vision. Just because you don’t pick up on notable changes in your day-to-day life, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something going on underneath the ocular surface.

“We can tell a lot about someone’s general health with an eye exam,” Zimprich said. “A lot of times, we’re the first people to pick up diabetes or high blood pressure or something else that’s going on within our bodies.”

Behind our eyes rest numerous blood vessels. During an eye exam, Zimprich said optometrists rely on these to get a closer look at what’s happening to our bodies and why certain issues may arise.

“A lot of times, that can give us a good indication of something else going on systemically,” she said. “Our eyes are one of the first things a patient notices, which means we’re often among the first to detect these health concerns.”

Eye diseases, warning signs

Dry eye

Dry eye is one of the most common conditions, Zimprich said. A driving factor for this is related to how often we’re exposed to digital screens each day.

“We’re often looking at screens all day long for work. Then, we get done from work, and we look at our phones, or we spend our night watching TV.”

Because the condition is so common, she said the symptoms are fairly easy to detect — even outside of an exam.

Symptoms of dry eye to watch for include:

• Fluctuating vision
• Burning eyes
• Constant fatigue
• Watery eyes

“These are all signs of dry eye,” she said. “And they can often be improved with proper treatment.”

Cataracts

Cataracts are another common eye condition where the eye’s natural lens, which rests behind the pupil and helps focus light onto your retina, becomes cloudy, resulting in blurry vision.

Common cataract symptoms include:

• Nighttime glare
• Blurry vision
• Light sensitivity
• Glasses no longer improving vision

“These are often the biggest issues people will face,” Zimprich said.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a progressive disease that causes fluid to build up in the eye, leading to:

• Increased eye pressure
• Damage to the optic nerve
• Irreversible vision loss

“Once the damage is done, we’re unable to get that back,” Zimprich said. “That’s why, especially if you have a family history of glaucoma, we highly, highly recommend that you see your eye care provider every year to make sure that nothing is changing, to make sure that we can be proactive in the treatment if need be.”

Vision awareness, all year-round

When it comes to preventing the progression or providing relief for these issues, Zimprich said there is a wide variety of techniques and technologies to help, ensuring “we’re on offense, not defense.”

While not every issue requires the same approach, she said the one thing everyone can do is schedule a routine eye exam — regardless of the month.

“I think that having a month to celebrate vision awareness is probably not enough,” she said. “Listen to your eyes. If you feel like you’re not seeing as well as you could or should, or you have a family history of an eye condition, this is just even more reason to continue annual exams and make sure that the biggest gift that you have isn’t taken away.”

If you are having trouble with your vision or need to schedule your routine eye exam, call your local eye doctor or learn more through a consultation at Vance Thompson Vision. Ready to schedule your exam? Call us at 605-361-EYES (3997).