Myopia, or nearsightedness, is the most common ocular disorder in the world and affects people of all ages. Nearly 30 percent of the US population is currently affected by myopia and based on the National Eye Institute’s latest projections, 39 million Americans will be affected by 2030 and over 44 million by 2050. The human eye’s ability to view focused images of both nearby and distant objects is dependent upon its capacity to accommodate. When you want to look at something nearby, the lens in your eye assumes a large curvature, resulting in a shorter focal length. Conversely, your lens becomes flatter in shape and takes on a longer focal length when you want to look at a distant object. Accommodation is key in allowing your eyes to use its muscles to change focal lengths in order to see objects at a variety of distances. When you lose the ability to accommodate, the lenses in your eyes become locked to focus on either near or far away objects. In the case of nearsighted individuals, light entering the eye can only focus on objects nearby. As a result, distant objects appear blurry because light is focused in front of the retina, or the light-sensitive tissue layer at the back of the eye, instead of directly on it. Myopia is diagnosed with a standard eye exam performed by an optometrist. During a typical exam, an optometrist will place an instrument called a phoropter with a series of lenses in front of your eyes and ask you to identify letters on a distance chart. The exam measures visual acuity, the sharpness or clarity of vision, and is denoted as a fraction such as 20/20. A visual acuity of 20/20 means that you can see what the average person can see when standing 20 feet away from the chart. With information gathered from ... ... middle of paper ... ...ting it. Many people believe that near work, such as computer use or reading, is associated with the development of myopia, but researchers have found minimal correlation between the two. Even though the prevention of myopia is not possible, steps can be taken to minimize its effects. Getting an annual eye exam will help monitor progression of myopia and ensures that your prescription for glasses or contact lenses is up to date. New evidence has also shown that daylight exposure plays a role in the progression of myopia. Encouraging your kids to spend more time outside could slow down myopia development in the long run. People who are highly myopic have increased chances of developing glaucoma, cataracts, and retinal detachments, which are leading causes of blindness. It is essential to visit your optometry every year to be informed about the health of your eyes.
Optometrists have accepted vision therapy, which is a medical treatment for optical muscle disabilities, as a feasible treatment used for eye related problems; claiming the treatment can strengthen vision and give the patient the opportunity to understand visuals quicker and clearer (Press). Vision therapy originated in the 1950s and over the past 25 years, has gained popularity, mainly because of new technological innovations in the field of treatment. Generally, vision therapy is prescribed as a measure mainly for people between the ages of 3 and 18. With the results from a comprehensive series of eye tests, the optometrist can work with the patient using special instruments—prisms, filters, occluders, and eye lenses—and strengthen the eye muscles, thus improving sight. According to optometrists in favor of vision therapy, these methods of treatment using these instruments function as safer routes to repair eye disabilities. Although vision therapy can yield favorable results, the practice as a treatment for innate eye disabilities has been in hot debate lately; as it can exceed $8000 and insurance companies do not cover the treatment. For decades, insurance companies have refused to accept vision therapy as a legitimate method for repairing eyesight (Boink). Concomitant with lack of insurance, the cost for a full treatment can exceed $8000, and doctors cannot guarantee a successful outcome. Recently, parents of children with eye related disabilities, such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (cross-eye), and doctors have attempted to cooperate with public schools to allow families access to school-funded doctors to practice vision therapy. With a tight budget, most schools cannot afford to supply vision therapy, and a...
Vision loss from glaucoma is permanent but can be prevented with early detection and treatment. Since the symptoms of the disease are usually unnoticeable, regular eye examination are important especially for persons over the age of 35 and those in high risk group.
Optometry involves of a combination of intricate practical skills and academia allowing the improvement of an individual’s vision as an outcome changing their quality of life. I would feel privileged to gain the opportunity to study Optometry enabling me to improve the ocular health and vision of others as it would be a valuable contribution to the society.
I have always been taught that you should never judge a book by it‘s cover. Something happened at birth that has greatly affected who I am today. I was born with a condition called lazy eye. Lazy eye syndrome is a condition where the eyes do not align properly, causing one or both eyes to weaken. If left untreated, the lazy eye does not develop properly. I inherited this from my dad, who also inherited the condition from his father. My mother first noticed I had eye problems when I was 2 months old and had my eyes examined. Because of my age, my doctor was reluctant to try surgery. So, my parents followed the treatment regiment and had me wear eye patches to help strengthen the weak eye. After 18 months of treatment, my doctor felt I was ready for surgery. Although some improvement was noticeable, it was too early to know if this would be the only surgery necessary to correct my eyes. I would have to continue to track my eyes through doctor examinations over the next few years to know if the surgery was completely successful.
Glaucoma is a common and important health problem. It is one of the leading causes of blindness in Western Society (Hoskins & Kass, 1989). It is responsible for ten percent of all blindness in the United States and continues to be the second or third most common cause of blindness in the world (Bunce, Fraser, & Wormald, 1999). It is estimated that two million people in the United States have been diagnosed as having glaucoma. Glaucoma is known to affect about two percent of Caucasians beginning at the age of 40 with an increasing risk for those over the age of 60. This risk is especially high if a member of the family has glaucoma or diabetes. Further, there is a higher risk of a glaucoma diagnosis for African Americans over the age of 40.
There is a tendency for humans to be trapped by their own preconceptions and to resist anything that goes against those pre-established beliefs with denial, contempt, or outright (and often) violent rejection. In Margaret Atwood’s poem “Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer” and Euripides’ The Bacchae, central characters refuse to accept and believe in the truth and instead decide to side with their individual delusions and beliefs. In particular, Pentheus (in The Bacchae) and the Narrator (in Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer) fail to accept and see Nature. Ultimately, both characters are blind to the power of nature and cannot see what is in front of them. There are several similar stages either character face in each work: an encounter, denial, resistance, underestimation, and finally, acknowledgement of nature.
Imagine a researcher requesting you to copy a picture. It's a simple task. You move your instrument of illustration across a sheet of blank paper with ease, glancing from the given picture to your own sketch in progress. When you are finished you observe a satisfactory replica and feel a sense of accomplishment and proficiency with the similarity you have achieved between picture and sketch. Then the researcher queries whether you can tell him what you have drawn. You search the interconnected lines, the edges, and the shapes of your sketch but cannot answer what the picture represents. Finally, an explanation is given. You have just drawn a house- a simple triangle resting on top of a square. Your sense of accomplishment is quickly replaced with a feeling of despair.
Robert, a 65 year-old male, has trouble reading fine detail, especially out of his central vision. He complains that his vision is blurred and that it is harder to see while operating a motor vehicle. In addition, sometimes objects appear wavy or crooked, which impairs his vision. His worst symptoms were that he occasionally lost the ability to distinguish between the features of familiar faces and he had a localized blind spot. Robert is not alone; many people suffer from symptoms related to loss and distortion of the visual field. He suffers from macular degeneration, the leading cause of decreased vision loss in the United States, especially for people over the age of 50 (Philippi, 2000).
If you have myopia, light beams focus too early within your eye — they form a focus point in front of the retina instead of right on it. Contact lenses correct nearsightedness by separating light rays, which minimizes the eye's focusing capability. This moves the eye's focus point back, onto the retina. Contact lenses designed to correct nearsightedness are thinner in the center and thicker around the outside. These types are cal...
The four main components of the eye that are responsible for producing an image are the cornea, lens, ciliary muscles and retina. Incoming light rays first encounter the cornea. The bulging shape of the cornea causes it to refract light similar to a convex lens. Because of the great difference in optical density between the air and the corneal material and because of the shape of the cornea, most of the refraction to incoming light rays takes place here. Light rays then pass through the pupil, and then onto the lens. A small amount of additional refraction takes place here as the light rays are "fine tuned" so that they focus on the retina.
Amblyopia is a condition in which visual acuity in one eye is greatly reduced. It is caused by lack of stimulation or disuse during visual development (Rose, 1998). Because the eye is not fully developed at birth (Jarvis, 1992, as cited in Rose, 1998), infants need stimulation to complete the visual neural pathway. When one or both eyes are inhibited, for example due to misalignment of one eye (strabismus) or a large difference in refractive power between two eyes (anisometropia), the neural pathway for the inhibited eye develops abnormally, or does not develop at all. At approximately six years of age eye development is complete (Stager, 1990, as cited in Rose, 1998). Before visual development is complete amblyopia can be treated. If it is caught and treated at an early age, normal vision can be preserved (Rose, 1998).
When the contact lens was invented, the world of vision correction was altered forever. No longer were those people lacking perfect 20/20 vision forced to look any different than everyone else. Both discrete and revolutionary, the contact lens provided a brand new, viable, alternate solution to an age-old problem. After centuries of engineering and discovery the contact lens has evolved greatly. Presently contact lenses are made hard or soft, for daily or continuous wear, gas permeable, and even providing ultraviolet protection. A properly fitted pair of today’s discrete, convenient, versatile, and inexpensive contact lenses provide the best form of vision correction available in today’s market.
Nearsightedness also known as myopia, is a disorder where one can see clearly close up, but see blurry at a distance (for example, not being able to read the blackboard but being able to read a book). This occurs when the eyeball is too long or the cornea is too curved to focus on the retina.
Although there are many Americans who think using computers is good for students to use all the time researchers clearly show using computers has affected eyesight damage. ( Ford, Matt. Web.)
The images formed on the two retinas are so unlike that they cannot be blended in the brain. Thus, a double image is perceived. The condition is known as diplopia, or double vision. Prismatic lenses are prescribed to correct this defect.Imperfections in the cones of the retina, resulting from heredity or disease, cause defective color vision. This is known as color blindness, or Daltonism. In total color blindness, everything appears in shades of gray.