If you are a newly diagnosed Type I insulin dependent diabetic, you need to get your ocular exam within 5 years of your diagnosis and every year after that.
If you are a newly diagnosed Type II diabetic, you need to get a dilated eye exam as soon as you can. You may have had diabetes for years that was not detected and you may already have damage to your eyes.
The importance of diabetic eye exams is twofold. First, diabetes damages the tiny blood vessels throughout your entire body. We can actually see these blood vessels in your eyes. If damage is seen there, the assumption can be made that there is damage to these tiny blood vessels throughout your entire body. It is a good marker of your diabetic damage not just in your eyes, but throughout your body.
Secondly, where there is diabetic vessel damage to the retina in your eyes, if caught early and treated before it has caused damage to your vision, your vision can be salvaged. Once your vision is affected, restoring your vision back to normal can be very difficult.