"Oh it's been a long time," Cheyenne Rogers said. "The last time I went to an appointment was 2 years ago."
Similar to the 20-year-old Calallen resident, there are many Coastal Bend residents who have not scheduled or attended an optometrist appointment to get their vision checked in a long time.
Many decided to put it off, thinking their vision is fine. However many patients that do get checked realize that their vision might not be as strong as they think.
"I never knew that I had astigmatism in both of my eyes," Rogers said. "At one point I was able to see fine and never understood why I was able to see like lines and stuff through like some of the lights that I see. I do think after this last appointment this is the best I've seen in a while."
In addition, patients that are Roger's age or younger would not know they have vision or other health-related problems if they didn't conduct an eye exam.
When KRIS 6 News reporter Tyrese Boone spoke to optometrist Dr. Allen Crisp, he explained they have technology that can scan patient's eyes to determine their health. This piece of equipment can show other symptoms of health-related problems such as high blood pressure, juvenile diabetes and more.
"Checking the health of the inside of your eye when we get to this instrument and we're looking at the back of somebody's eye is super important," Crisp said. "There are things that occur that can happen at the back of somebody's eye in the retina that could not be found if they didn't come in to get their eyes checked."
Dr. Crisp recommended that anyone between the age of 4 to 20 should attend at least one exam, whereas adults aged 40 and up should do two annually.
The goal of this is to promote improvement in vision and the overall health of patients.
"The very best thing you can do to protect that vision is to have an eye exam and have it regularly to make sure that there are no problems," he said.
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