By Nicolette Helling & photojournalist John Thain, FOX 21 News

SUPERIOR - Fall is just around the corner and in Wisconsin, vision centers are busy with children getting eye exams before starting school.

But kids aren't the only people who should be seeing an optometrist sometime soon.

At Vision-Pro Optical in Superior, Doctor of Optometry, Scott Wright is seeing a patient.

Cassie Stovern has been wearing glasses since the 6th grade.

She's had an eye exam every year since then.

But she had no idea how important those eye exams would turn out to be.

"Try to get people in early and catch problems," said Wright.

He says he sees people every day who aren't sure why they need an exam, especially if they don't have vision problems.

"You wouldn't notice it happening until it was too late and we can't repair that after its happened," said Wright.

Wright is talking about glaucoma.

Unlike cataracts or macular degeneration, glaucoma sets in so slowly, it's easy to miss.

"Glaucoma's the one that we emphasize the most because it doesn't have any symptoms until a person is, for the most part, blind," said Wright.

But optomotrists can see much more than vision-specific problems when they examine your eyes.

Optometrists can detect diabetes, high cholesterol, multiple sclerosis and other serious medical conditions during the course of one visit.

That's why regular eye exams are so important.

"I had a high pressure build up around my brain," said Cassie Stovern.

She says she's had headaches for years but never found answers with her physician.

It was her optometrist that finally helped recognized her brain condition.

"So I had my yearly eye exam and they said, 'You need to do something about this,'" said Stovern.

Stovern says she doesn't like to think about what could have happened if she hadn't had her yearly exam.

"I very possibly could have lost vision... very possibly," said Stovern.