Your vision health is important, too
Recently, I had a gentleman come for an annual wellness visit. He hadn’t had one for quite some time, and I could tell he was a little uncertain about what to expect. He was patient while we reviewed his family history, and tolerant while we talked about diet and exercise, but he’d had enough when I asked about the last time he’d been to the dentist and the eye doctor. “What is this about?” he asked me, somewhat exasperated. I suppose people don’t usually expect to go to their primary care doctor and have her nag them about their teeth or their eyes!
But both teeth and eyes are really important to your overall well being. There is ample evidence linking poor dental health to other issues, like heart disease and preterm births. The eyes provide clues to many systemic diseases, such as autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, cancers, various infections, genetic conditions like Marfan’s syndrome, and of course more mundane issues like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Naturally, I harp on people with diabetes to get to the eye doctor almost every time I see them! Diabetes can damage small blood vessels, and in the eye this damage may lead to blindness.
