My mother was legally blind when she died. How do I protect my eyes?

Pop in to see the eye doctor for a dilated-eye exam every year, says Kenneth Dickerson, a doctor of optometry at the University of Rochester’s Flaum Eye Institute. Most eye diseases, such as macular degeneration, are silent sight stealers; without a doctor’s inspection, you don’t know you have a condition until it’s at an advanced stage.