Diabetic retinopathy caused by diabetes is one of the main causes of blindness and one of the most serious complications of diabetes. Recently, many scholars have foundthat in the early stage of diabetes before serious ocular complications, chronic injuries can still occur to anterior ocular tissues such as cornea, conjunctiva, meibomian glands etc. We review the impact of diabetes on the anterior segment of the patient with existing ophthalmologic examination techniques, which can help clinicians identify patients with early diabetes and then intervene and refer them, thus reducing the risk of long-term serious complications of diabetes.