It may feel like there are a lot of goals, directions, or specialties to focus on in 2025. However, one area of the eye can often take a backseat to other priorities until damage has been done. Make sure your practice brings back-of-eye care, macular health more specifically, to the forefront of those priorities.

What Is Back-of-Eye Care?

There are several important anatomies that find themselves “in the back of the eye,” but we’re talking about caring for the macula. The macula is a small area in the retina responsible for central vision. The macula helps patients see fine details clearly (e.g. reading fine print or threading a needle), recognize faces, and even drive a car safely.

The macula is protected by what’s called macular pigment, the “yellow spot” in the retina that absorbs potentially harmful blue light and reducing free radicals that can lead to oxidation and damage.

What Does Macular Care Impact?

As mentioned, the macula is responsible for crisp, clear central vision, and macular pigment is responsible for protecting and enhancing that vision. It does so by acting like internal polarized sunglasses, which helps:

• Reduce
• Light sensitivity
• Light scatter
• Eye strain and fatigue

• Enhance
• Contrast sensitivity
• Visual acuity
• Visual processing speed
• Glare recovery

A healthy, or dense, macular pigment filters the majority of disruptive blue light and helps maintain healthy central vision for years to come, but that’s not all. Macular pigment optical density (MPOD) is also a key risk factor for:

• Age-related eye health issues
• Visual challenges related to blood sugar control issues
• Night driving and day glare concerns
• Cognitive issues
• Other visual performance challenges

Can Macular Health Be Measured?

Yes! The macula can be viewed through a dilated eye exam and OCT or fluorescein angiography for more detail. MPOD specifically can be measured through expensive fundus reflectometry or an affordable in-practice tool that uses trusted heterochromatic flicker photometry known as the Zx Pro™. The Zx Pro reliably and accurately measures MPOD directly in the eye. This quick and easy exam is self-administered by the patient, freeing up staff members’ time and testing lane space should you choose to administer in the exam room.

The Zx Pro provides a numerical value (a score) between 0.0 and 1.0 density units (d.u.) that correlates with your patients’ macular health. The closer to 1.0 d.u., the denser the pigment and better protection and visual function the patient has. That said, the national average MPOD score is 0.34 with an optimal score being 0.5 and up, leaving most patients with room for improvement.

How Can Macular Health Be Improved?

While everyone is born with macular pigment, its density tends to diminish over time if not properly supported through the diet. Macular pigment is made up of 2 dietary carotenoids called zeaxanthin and lutein, but the former is notoriously difficult to ingest in amounts great enough to impact MPOD. That’s why many eye care practitioners prescribe nutraceuticals.

Specifically, EyePromise® eye health nutraceuticals are trusted by fellow doctors and professional athletes to protect and enhance vision. Beyond trust, they are guaranteed to increase MPOD scores in 6 months with consistent supplementation. That’s because each formula is crafted with the optimal ratio of dietary zeaxanthin to lutein found in the center of the macula (fovea).

It’s time to bring macular health into focus for your practice. Have your local EyePromise Regional Account Manager contact you about the trusted Zx Pro and clinically proven EyePromise nutraceuticals today!