Quick answer
See an ophthalmologist for changes in vision, eye pain, floaters or flashes, and for regular checks if you have diabetes. Vision is one of the three systems that keep you upright, which makes an uncorrected sight problem one of the most overlooked and most fixable causes of falls in older adults.
Ophthalmologists treat the eye. The reason there is a page about them on a physiotherapy site is falls — and it is not a stretch.
When to see one
- Any change in vision, particularly if it is sudden
- Sudden flashes, floaters, or a shadow across your vision — urgently
- Eye pain, redness that does not settle, or persistent watering
- Diabetes — an annual retinal check, whatever your vision is like
- Difficulty with night vision or glare
- Regular checks after the age of forty, for glaucoma and cataract
How physiotherapy fits
Balance is maintained by three systems working together: the inner ear, the sensation coming up from your feet and joints, and vision. Lose accuracy in one and the other two compensate. Lose accuracy in two and you fall.
This is why an older person who has started falling deserves an eye test as part of the assessment, not just a balance programme. Uncorrected cataract, a wrong prescription and — a specific and frequently missed one — varifocal lenses on stairs are all genuine causes of falls, and all of them are far easier to fix than a fractured hip is to recover from.
The same triangle explains why vertigo and dizziness need assessing rather than waiting out, and why diabetic patients need both their eyes and their feet checked: losing sensation in the feet and accuracy in the eyes at the same time is how a manageable problem becomes a dangerous one.
Where to see one
Our physiotherapy units run inside multi-speciality hospitals and nursing homes across West and South West Delhi — in Vikaspuri, Janakpuri, Uttam Nagar, Najafgarh and Dwarka — most of which run consultant clinics in this speciality. If you are already under our care, ask your therapist and we will tell you who holds a clinic at the centre you attend and how to get an appointment.
We are a physiotherapy and rehabilitation practice. We do not employ these consultants and we take no fee for pointing you at one; we work alongside them because most of our patients need both.
Need the physiotherapy side?
Book an assessment and we will tell you what rehabilitation can do, and whether you need a doctor first.
Book an assessment