Looking after your eyes

A man having an eye test. He has a focused expression, grey hair and a grey beard and is wearing a pale orange coloured polo shirt. An optician, standing to the left, shines a light from a small torch into his eyes. The optician is looking at the man’s eyes. Behind them is a plain white wall.

Keeping your eyes healthy doesn't have to be stressful. Regular eye examinations and simple eye safety is a good start as our resources and guidance explain below.

In this section

Looking after your eyes

Having a regular eye examination (eye test) with your optometrist (optician) is the best way to make sure that your eyes are healthy.

We need light to see what is around us and to see colour. Light bounces off the objects we look at and different objects reflect different amounts of light, which we see as different colours. The different parts of the eye work together to turn these light rays into images.

Eye examinations

An eye examination is an important health check for your eyes, especially as some eye conditions don’t always have obvious symptoms. Most people should have their eyes tested at least once every two years.

How to protect your eyes from the sun

Find out how harmful UV light can affect your eyes, and how you can protect your eyes from the sun.

Smoking and sight loss

Smoking can double the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the UK's leading causes of sight loss.

Eye safety

Accidents involving the eyes can have potentially sight-threatening consequences. There are a few simple things that can be done to lessen the risk of activities that may lead to eye damage or accidents.

Getting the treatment you need

NHS England successfully treats hundreds of thousands of people with eye conditions every year. Even so, occasionally, blind or partially sighted people, and people at risk of sight loss, find it difficult to get the information or timely treatment they need, or are just not treated well.