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A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Sunday, February 22, 2026
EYE HEALTH
Early Detection
is Key with
Eye Health
Regular checkups are
critical for older adults
A
s we age, the need for more health care services inevitably occurs. Maintaining
regularly scheduled check-ups with your primary care physician is vital, but it’s
also important to not neglect your eye health. A yearly visit to your ophthalmologist or optometrist is increasingly important as you age, says Taariq Khalil Mohammed,
M.D., assistant professor, ophthalmology and visual sciences, as well as a retina specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
“Unfortunately, aging is behind a lot
of the problems that we see in the eye.
In particular, one of the more common
things that I see is age-related macular
degeneration, which becomes increasingly common with age. For someone
who’s under 50, it’s extremely unlikely,
whereas by the time someone’s 90, it
becomes a lot more common. With every
year, every decade, it does increase in
chance, as do the other conditions that
we treat, like retinal detachments, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataracts,”
says Dr. Mohammed.
He adds that it’s important to have an
eye doctor that you trust and you’re able
to check in with regularly. Make sure you
have a full eye exam yearly that includes
a vision check and dilating drops to
widen the pupil to allow the doctor to see
deep inside the eye for a thorough check
of the retina and optic nerve. “With a lot
of eye conditions, the patient does not
experience any symptoms, so with a full
exam, you’ll know if you need more treatment or a more detailed follow-up exam,”
Mohammed says.
Mohammed notes that at the University
of Maryland, he works closely with
optometrists who perform regular complete eye exams and assist with glasses
and contacts.
“If they see someone and they have
a retina problem, they just call me, and
I can get them in right away for an
appointment. Any good eye doctor can
determine is something is wrong, and
then they can get you to the right person,
whether it’s an ophthalmologist or a subspecialty optometrist.”
Most Common Eye Conditions
Mohammed notes that cataracts are
the most common eye condition, adding
that every single person will get a cataract, but the degree to which someone
gets a cataract, it varies, and that’s why
some people need surgery sooner rather
than later. “As the population gets older,
we will be doing a lot of cataract surgery;
however, the surgery is quick with a lighter recovery time,” he says.
With
macular
degeneration,
Mohammed says that many patients do
not experience any symptoms or minor
symptoms such as difficulty adjusting to
different light levels – leaving a dimly lit
restaurant and going outside where it’s
sunny and bright, for example. “Macular
degeneration can sometimes cause more
sudden changes where suddenly a new
area is blurry or distorted close to the
center of vision. If that’s the case, those
are often treatable and can improve, but
it is important to get to treatment sooner
rather than later. It’s helpful to check
each eye separately because the eyes
work together, so if one eye suddenly
has a dark spot or a blurry spot from
something like macular degeneration, a
lot of times people won’t notice because
the other eye compensates for it so that
people can see and do what they need
to do. The downside is that people may
not notice until they come in for a regular
eye exam in a few months,” Mohammed
says. For people who have a family history of macular degeneration, which has a
very strong family hereditary component,
it’s even more important to have regular
eye checkups.
Common symptoms for a retinal
detachment include the occurrence of an
abundance of new floaters, lots of bright
fresh flashing lights, like camera flashes
off to the side, or a sudden or progressive
dark curtain in their vision, coming in from
the side, or the top of the sides. This is a
very treatable condition, but it’s important
to see your eye doctor quickly.
Unlike cataract surgery, the recovery
time for a retinal detachment can take
about three months, he adds.
Speaking of floaters, if you see a few
floaters, it’s probably nothing to worry
about as this is very common as we age,
but you should still mention it to your eye
doctor, Mohammed advises. “The thing
to look out for is if you suddenly wake
Eye Health
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