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To assist IAPB members, eye health personnel, health professionals and program personnel, IAPB is collating and sharing information and resources specific to eye health and international development in relation to COVID-19. Without much ado, COVID-19 Resources: Here is what we know:
Computer Vision Syndrome, also referred to as Digital Eye Strain, describes a group of eye and vision-related problems that result from prolonged computer, tablet, e-reader and cell phone use. Many individuals experience eye discomfort and vision problems when viewing digital screens for extended periods. The level of discomfort appears to increase with the amount of digital screen use.
The average American worker spends seven hours a day on the computer either in the office or working from home. March is Save Your Vision Month and the American Optometric Association is working to educate both employers and employees about how to avoid digital eye strain in the workplace. To help alleviate digital eye strain, follow the 20-20-20 rule; take a 20-second break to view something 20 feet away every 20 minutes.
Click here for helpful infographics about the 20-20-20 rule and digital eye strain.
The most common symptoms associated with Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) or Digital Eye Strain are
These symptoms may be caused by:
Uncorrected vision problems can increase the severity of Computer Vision Syndrome or Digital Eye Strain symptoms.Viewing a computer or digital screen is different than reading a printed page. Often the letters on the computer or handheld device are not as precise or sharply defined, the level of contrast of the letters to the background is reduced, and the presence of glare and reflections on the screen may make viewing difficult.
Viewing distances and angles used for this type of work are also often different from those commonly used for other reading or writing tasks. As a result, the eye focusing and eye movement requirements for digital screen viewing can place additional demands on the visual system.
In addition, the presence of even minor vision problems can often significantly affect comfort and performance at a computer or while using other digital screen devices. Uncorrected or under corrected vision problems can be major contributing factors to computer-related eyestrain.
Even people who have an eyeglass or contact lens prescription may find it’s not suitable for the specific viewing distances of their computer screen. Some people tilt their heads at odd angles because their glasses aren’t designed for looking at a computer. Or they bend toward the screen in order to see it clearly. Their postures can result in muscle spasms or pain in the neck, shoulder or back.
In most cases, symptoms of CVS or Digital Eye Strain occur because the visual demands of the task exceed the visual abilities of the individual to comfortably perform them. At greatest risk for developing CVS or Digital Eye Strain are those persons who spend two or more continuous hours at a computer or using a digital screen device every day.
How is Computer Vision Syndrome or Digital Eye Strain diagnosed?
Computer Vision Syndrome, or Digital Eye Strain, can be diagnosed through a comprehensive eye examination. Testing, with special emphasis on visual requirements at the computer or digital device working distance, may include:
This testing may be done without the use of eye drops to determine how the eyes respond under normal seeing conditions. In some cases, such as when some of the eyes’ focusing power may be hidden, eye drops may be used. They temporarily keep the eyes from changing focus while testing is done.
Using the information obtained from these tests, along with results of other tests, your optometrist can determine if you have Computer Vision Syndrome or Digital Eye Strain and advise you on treatment options.
How is Computer Vision Syndrome, or Digital Eye Strain treated?
Solutions to digital screen-related vision problems are varied. However, they can usually be alleviated by obtaining regular eye care and making changes in how you view the screen.
Eye Care
In some cases, individuals who do not require the use of eyeglasses for other daily activities may benefit from glasses prescribed specifically for computer use. In addition, persons already wearing glasses may find their current prescription does not provide optimal vision for viewing a computer.
Viewing the Computer
Proper body positioning for computer use.
Some important factors in preventing or reducing the symptoms of CVS have to do with the computer and how it is used. This includes lighting conditions, chair comfort, location of reference materials, position of the monitor, and the use of rest breaks.
Regular eye examinations and proper viewing habits can help to prevent or reduce the development of the symptoms associated with Computer Vision Syndrome.
If you are having signs or symptoms of computer vision syndrome, call or visit:
Eye update Eye clinic & opticals 01, Ajuwon junction, Ajuwon bus stop, beside BNPL filling station, Akute/Ajuwon road, off Elliot bus stop, Iju-Ishagah near Alagbole Fagba. Tel: 0803497158, 08107531046.
This information will reach people within the following areas and yonder:
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Contact lenses are an excellent choice for nearly anyone who needs vision correction and doesn’t want to wear eyeglasses full time or undergo LASIK surgery.
Unsure about contact lenses? This article will detail contact lens materials, contact lens designs and features and even new contact lens formats.
For instance, the first light-adaptive contact lenses, Acuvue Oasys with Transitions, debuted in the United States in 2019 and contact lenses embedded with antibiotics are in the works. (See our contact lens news page for the latest in contact lenses.)
Here are the basics you should know about contact lenses before seeing your eye doctor if you are interested in wearing contacts.
The first choice when considering contact lenses is which lens material will best satisfy your needs. There are five types of contact lenses, based on type of lens material they are made of:
Contact Lens Material
In 2017, 64 percent of contact lenses prescribed in the U.S. were silicone hydrogel lenses, followed by soft (hydrogel) lenses (22 percent), gas permeable lenses (11 percent), hybrid lenses (2 percent) and PMMA lenses (1 percent).
Contact lenses are an excellent choice for nearly anyone who needs vision correction and doesn’t want to wear eyeglasses full time or undergo LASIK surgery.
Unsure about contact lenses? This article will detail contact lens materials, contact lens designs and features and even new contact lens formats.
For instance, the first light-adaptive contact lenses, Acuvue Oasys with Transitions, debuted in the United States in 2019 and contact lenses embedded with antibiotics are in the works. (See our contact lens news page for the latest in contact lenses.)
Here are the basics you should know about contact lenses before seeing your eye doctor if you are interested in wearing contacts.
The first choice when considering contact lenses is which lens material will best satisfy your needs. There are five types of contact lenses, based on type of lens material they are made of:
Contact Lens Material
In 2017, 64 percent of contact lenses prescribed in the U.S. were silicone hydrogel lenses, followed by soft (hydrogel) lenses (22 percent), gas permeable lenses (11 percent), hybrid lenses (2 percent) and PMMA lenses (1 percent).
LEARN MORE about the proper care of your contact lenses.
Until 1979, everyone who wore contact lenses removed and cleaned them nightly. The introduction of “extended wear” enabled wearers to sleep in their contacts. Now, two types of lenses are classified by wearing time:
“Continuous wear” is a term that’s sometimes used to describe 30 consecutive nights of lens wear — the maximum wearing time approved by the FDA for certain brands of extended wear lenses
Even with proper care, contact lenses (especially soft contacts) should be replaced frequently to prevent the build-up of lens deposits and contamination that increase the risk of eye infections.
Soft lenses have these general classifications, based on how frequently they should be discarded:
Lens Replacement Frequency
Gas permeable contact lenses are more resistant to lens deposits and don’t need to be discarded as frequently as soft lenses. Often, GP lenses can last a year or longer before they need to be replaced.
The most frequently prescribed contact lens replacement schedule in the U.S. in 2017 was monthly (40 percent), followed by daily (35 percent), every one to two weeks (24 percent) and annually (1 percent).
LEARN MORE about the proper care of your contact lenses.
Soft contact lenses (both standard hydrogel and silicone hydrogel lenses) are available in a variety of designs, depending on their intended purpose:
Soft contact lens designs
All of these lenses can be custom made for hard-to-fit eyes. Other lens designs also are available — including lenses fabricated for use in special situations, such as correcting for keratoconus.
Bifocal contacts for astigmatism. These are advanced soft contacts that correct both presbyopia and astigmatism, so you can remain glasses-free after age 40 even if you have astigmatism. [More about bifocal contact lenses for astigmatism.]
Contacts for dry eyes. Are your contacts uncomfortably dry? Certain soft contact lenses are specially made to reduce the risk of contact lens-related dry eye symptoms. [More about contact lenses for dry eyes.]
Colored lenses. Many of the types of lenses described above also come in colors that can enhance the natural color of your eyes — that is, make your green eyes even greener, for example. Other colored lenses can totally change the color of your eyes, as in from brown to blue.
Special-effect lenses. Also called theatrical, novelty, or costume lenses, special-effect contacts take coloration one step further to make you look like a cat, a vampire, or another alter-ego of your choice.
Prosthetic lenses. Colored contact lenses also can be used for more medically oriented purposes. Opaque soft lenses called prosthetic contacts can be custom-designed for an eye that has been disfigured by injury or disease to mask the disfigurement and match the appearance of the other, unaffected eye.
Custom lenses. If conventional contact lenses don’t seem to work for you, you might be a candidate for custom contact lenses that are made-to-order for your individual eye shape and visual needs.
UV-inhibiting lenses. Some soft contact lenses help protect your eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet rays that can cause cataracts and other eye problems. But because contacts don’t cover your entire eye, you still should wear UV-blocking sunglasses outdoors for the best protection from the sun.
Scleral lenses. Large-diameter gas permeable lenses called scleral contacts are specially designed to treat keratoconus and other corneal irregularities, as well as presbyopia.
Myopia control contacts. Special contact lenses are being developed to slow or stop the progression of nearsightedness in children. [More about myopia control.]
First, your contacts must address the problem that is prompting you to wear lenses in the first place. Your contact lenses must provide good vision by correcting your myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, or some combination of those vision problems.
Second, the lens must fit your eye. To do that, lenses come in tens of thousands of combinations of diameter and curvature. Of course, not every lens brand comes in every “size.”
Your ECP is skilled in evaluating your eye’s physiology, and your eyesight, to determine which lens best satisfies the two criteria above.
Third, you may have another medical need that drives the choice of lens. For example, your ECP might pick a particular lens if your eyes tend to be dry.
Finally, consider your “wish list” of contact lens features — colors, for example, or overnight wear.
When you and your ECP decide on the right lens for you, you’ll be given a contact lens prescription. You’ll be able to buy a supply of lenses from your ECP or from the many other outlets that sell contact lenses. [For more on this, please read “Where’s the Best Place to Buy Contact Lenses?”]
Caring for your contact lenses — cleaning, disinfecting and storing them — is much easier than it used to be.
A few years ago, you would have needed several bottles of cleaning products, and perhaps enzyme tablets, for proper care. Today, most people can use “multipurpose” solutions — meaning that one product both cleans and disinfects, and is used for storage.
People who are sensitive to the preservatives in multipurpose solutions might need preservative-free systems, such as those containing hydrogen peroxide. These do an excellent job of cleaning contacts, but it’s very important to follow the directions for using them. The solution should not come into contact with your eyes until soaking is complete and the solution is neutralized.
Of course, you can avoid lens care altogether by wearing daily disposable contact lenses.
Trial and error often is involved in finding the perfect lens for you. People react differently to various lens materials and cleaning solutions.
Also, the correct “parameters” of your lens — that is, power, diameter, and curvature — can be finalized only after you’ve successfully worn the lens. This is especially true for more complex fits involving extra parameters, such as with bifocals or toric contact lenses for astigmatism.
If you experience discomfort or poor vision when wearing contact lenses, chances are that an adjustment or change of lens can help.
Today, more contact lens choices than ever are available to provide comfort, good vision, and healthy eyes. If your eyes or lenses are uncomfortable or you are not seeing well, remove your lenses and visit your eye care professional to explore available remedies for contact lens discomfort.
You can buy replacement contact lenses at many places, and some offer a better value than others. Find out more about where to buy contacts and buying contact lenses online.
For more information about contacts, visit our contact lens expert at Eyeupdate Eye clinic, 01 Ajuwon junction beside BPNL Filling station, Akute/Ajuwon road, Off Elliot bus stop, Iju-Ishaga, Lagos/Ogun
Buy prescriptive contact lenses @ N5000 per pair with solution and storage case. Call 08034971582 to place your order
Your eyes are an important part of your health. Most people rely on their eyes to see and make sense of the world around them. But some eye diseases can lead to vision loss, so it is important to identify and treat eye diseases as early as possible. You should get your eyes checked as often as your health care provider recommends it, or if you have any new vision problems. And just as it is important to keep your body healthy, you also need to keep your eyes healthy.
There are things you can do to help keep your eyes healthy and make sure you are seeing your best:
Everyone needs to have their eyesight tested to check for vision and eye problems. Children usually have vision screening in school or at their health care provider’s office during a checkup. Adults may also get vision screenings during their checkups. But many adults need more than a vision screening. They need a comprehensive dilated eye exam.
Getting comprehensive dilated eye exams is especially important because some eye diseases may not have warning signs. The exams are the only way to detect these diseases in their early stages, when they are easier to treat.
The exam includes several tests:
If you have a refractive error and are going to need glasses or contacts, then you will also have a refraction test. When you have this test, you look through a device that has lenses of different strengths to help your eye care professional figure out which lenses will give you the clearest vision.
At what age you should start getting these exams and how often you need them depends on many factors. They include your age, race, and overall health. For example, if you are African American, you are at higher risk of glaucoma and you need to start getting the exams earlier. If you have diabetes, you should get an exam every year. Check with your health care provider about if and when you need these exams
Dr. Dr. Steven E.N., Eyeupdate clinic & optical supplies, 01 Ajuwon junction, beside BPNL filling station, Ajuwon, off Elliot bus stop, Iju-Ishagah, Lagos. Tel: 08107531046, 08034971582.
Eye exam/test consists of series of tests that your eye doctor will perform in order to determine your ocular status.
An eye exam involves a series of tests to evaluate your vision and check for eye diseases/vision defects. Your eye doctor may use a variety of instruments, shine bright lights directly at your eyes and request that you look through an array of lenses. Each test during an eye exam evaluates a different aspect of your vision or eye health.
An eye exam helps detect eye problems at their earliest stage — when they’re most treatable. Regular eye exams give your eye care professional a chance to help you correct or adapt to vision changes and provide you with tips on caring for your eyes.
Several factors may determine how frequently you need an eye exam, including your age, health and risk of developing eye problems. General guidelines are as follows:
For children under 3, your pediatrician will likely look for the most common eye problems — lazy eye, crossed eyes or misaligned eyes. If there are eye concerns or symptoms, an examination is appropriate at that time regardless of age. Your child could undergo a more comprehensive eye exam between the ages of 3 and 5.
Have your child’s vision checked before he or she enters first grade. If your child has no symptoms of vision problems and no family history of vision problems, have his or her vision rechecked every one to two years. Otherwise, schedule eye exams based on the advice of your eye doctor.
In general, if you are healthy and you have no symptoms of vision problems, have your eyes checked on this schedule:
Have your eyes checked more often if you:
There are three different types of eye specialists. Which specialist you choose may be a matter of personal preference or will depend on the nature of your eye problem.
If you wear contact lenses or glasses, bring them to your appointment. Your eye doctor will want to make sure your prescription is the best one for you.
If your eyes are dilated as a part of your eye exam, you may want to bring sunglasses to wear after your eye exam is complete, as daylight or other bright lights may be uncomfortable or cause blurred vision. Also, consider having someone else drive you home.
If you’re seeing a new eye doctor or if you’re having your first eye exam, expect questions about your vision history. Part of the examination, such as taking your medical history and the initial eye test, may be performed by a clinical assistant or technician.
Your answers help your eye doctor understand your risk of eye disease and vision problems. Be prepared to give specific information, including:
An eye exam usually involves these steps:
Several different tests may be performed during the eye exam. The tests are designed to check your vision and to examine the appearance and function of all parts of your eyes.
At the end of your eye exam, you and your doctor will discuss the results of all testing, including an assessment of your vision, your risk of eye disease and preventive measures you can take to protect your eyesight.
This test evaluates the muscles that control eye movement. Your eye doctor watches your eye movements as you follow a moving object, such as a pen or small light, with your eyes. He or she looks for muscle weakness, poor control or poor coordination.
This test measures how clearly you see. Your doctor asks you to identify different letters of the alphabet printed on a chart (Snellen chart) or a screen positioned some distance away. The lines of type get smaller as you move down the chart. Each eye is tested separately. Your near vision also may be tested, using a card with letters similar to the distant eye chart. The card is held at reading distance.
Light waves are bent as they pass through your cornea and lens. If light rays don’t focus perfectly on the back of your eye, you have a refractive error. Having a refractive error may mean you need some form of correction, such as glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery, to see as clearly as possible.
Assessment of your refractive error helps your doctor determine a lens prescription that will give you the sharpest, most comfortable vision. The assessment may also determine that you don’t need corrective lenses.
Your doctor may use a computerized refractor to estimate your prescription for glasses or contact lenses. Or he or she may use a technique called retinoscopy. In this procedure, the doctor shines a light into your eye and measures the refractive error by evaluating the movement of the light reflected by your retina back through your pupil.
Your eye doctor usually fine-tunes this refraction assessment by having you look through a masklike device that contains wheels of different lenses (phoropter). He or she asks you to judge which combination of lenses gives you the sharpest vision.
Your visual field is the full extent of what you can see to the sides without moving your eyes. The visual field test determines whether you have difficulty seeing in any areas of your overall field of vision. The different types of visual field tests include:
Using your responses to one or more of these tests, your eye doctor determines the fullness of your field of vision. If you aren’t able to see in certain areas, noting the pattern of your visual field loss may help your eye doctor diagnose your eye condition.
You could have poor color vision and not even realize it. If you have difficulty distinguishing certain colors, your eye doctor may screen your vision for a color deficiency. To do this, your doctor shows you several multicolored dot-pattern tests.
If you have no color deficiency, you’ll be able to pick out numbers and shapes from within the dot patterns. If you do have a color deficiency, you’ll find it difficult to see certain patterns within the dots. Your doctor may use other tests, as well.
A slit lamp is a microscope that magnifies and illuminates the front of your eye with an intense line of light. Your doctor uses this device to examine the eyelids, lashes, cornea, iris, lens and fluid chamber between your cornea and iris.
Your doctor may use a dye, most commonly fluorescein (flooh-RES-een), to color the film of tears over your eye. This helps reveal any damaged cells on the front of your eye. Your tears wash the dye from the surface of your eye fairly quickly.
A retinal examination — sometimes called ophthalmoscopy or funduscopy — allows your doctor to evaluate the back of your eye, including the retina, the optic disk and the underlying layer of blood vessels that nourish the retina (choroid). Usually before your doctor can see these structures, your pupils must be dilated with eyedrops that keep the pupil from getting smaller when your doctor shines light into the eye.
After administering eyedrops and giving them time to work, your eye doctor may use one or more of these techniques to view the back of your eye:
Tonometry measures the fluid pressure inside your eye (intraocular pressure). This is one test that helps your eye doctor detect glaucoma, a disease that damages the optic nerve.
Several methods to measure intraocular pressure are available, including:
If your eye pressure is higher than average or your optic nerve looks unusual, your doctor may use a pachometer. This instrument uses sound waves to measure the thickness of your cornea. The most common way of measuring corneal thickness is to put an anesthetic drop in your eye, then place a small probe in contact with the front surface of the eye. The measurement takes seconds.
You may need more-specialized tests, depending on your age, medical history and risk of developing eye disease.
Normal results from an eye exam include:
Your doctor may give you a prescription for corrective lenses. If your eye exam yields other abnormal results, your doctor will discuss with you next steps for further testing or for treating an underlying condition.
Diabetic retinopathy (die-uh-BET-ik ret-ih-NOP-uh-thee) is a diabetes complication that affects eyes. It’s caused by damage to the blood vessels of the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye (retina).
At first, diabetic retinopathy may cause no symptoms or only mild vision problems. Eventually, it can cause blindness.
The condition can develop in anyone who has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The longer you have diabetes and the less controlled your blood sugar is, the more likely you are to develop this eye complication.
You might not have symptoms in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy. As the condition progresses, diabetic retinopathy symptoms may include:
Diabetic retinopathy usually affects both eyes.
Careful management of your diabetes is the best way to prevent vision loss. If you have diabetes, see your eye doctor for a yearly eye exam with dilation — even if your vision seems fine. Pregnancy may worsen diabetic retinopathy, so if you’re pregnant, your eye doctor may recommend additional eye exams throughout your pregnancy.
Contact your eye doctor right away if your vision changes suddenly or becomes blurry, spotty or hazy.
Over time, too much sugar in your blood can lead to the blockage of the tiny blood vessels that nourish the retina, cutting off its blood supply. As a result, the eye attempts to grow new blood vessels. But these new blood vessels don’t develop properly and can leak easily.
There are two types of diabetic retinopathy:
Anyone who has diabetes can develop diabetic retinopathy. Risk of developing the eye condition can increase as a result of:
Diabetic retinopathy involves the abnormal growth of blood vessels in the retina. Complications can lead to serious vision problems:
You can’t always prevent diabetic retinopathy. However, regular eye exams, good control of your blood sugar and blood pressure, and early intervention for vision problems can help prevent severe vision loss.
If you have diabetes, reduce your risk of getting diabetic retinopathy by doing the following:
Remember, diabetes doesn’t necessarily lead to vision loss. Taking an active role in diabetes management can go a long way toward preventing complications.
Diabetic retinopathy is best diagnosed with a comprehensive dilated eye exam. For this exam, drops placed in your eyes widen (dilate) your pupils to allow your doctor to better view inside your eyes. The drops may cause your close vision to blur until they wear off, several hours later.
During the exam, your eye doctor will look for:
In addition, your eye doctor may:
With your eyes dilated, your doctor takes pictures of the inside of your eyes. Then your doctor will inject a special dye into your arm vein and take more pictures as the dye circulates through your eyes’ blood vessels. Your doctor can use the images to pinpoint blood vessels that are closed, broken down or leaking fluid.
Your eye doctor may request an optical coherence tomography (OCT) exam. This imaging test provides cross-sectional images of the retina that show the thickness of the retina, which will help determine whether fluid has leaked into retinal tissue. Later, OCT exams can be used to monitor how treatment is working.
Treatment, which depends largely on the type of diabetic retinopathy you have and how severe it is, is geared to slowing or stopping progression of the condition.
If you have mild or moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, you may not need treatment right away. However, your eye doctor will closely monitor your eyes to determine when you might need treatment.
Work with your diabetes doctor (endocrinologist) to determine if there are ways to improve your diabetes management. When diabetic retinopathy is mild or moderate, good blood sugar control can usually slow the progression.
If you have proliferative diabetic retinopathy or macular edema, you’ll need prompt surgical treatment. Depending on the specific problems with your retina, options may include:
Even after treatment for diabetic retinopathy, you’ll need regular eye exams. At some point, additional treatment may be recommended.
Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this disease.
Several alternative therapies have suggested some benefits for people with diabetic retinopathy, but more research is needed to understand whether these treatments are effective and safe.
Be sure to let your doctor know if you are taking any herbs or supplements. They have the potential to interact with other medications, or cause complications in surgery, such as excessive bleeding.
It’s vital not to delay standard treatments to try unproven therapies. Early treatment is the best way to prevent vision loss.
The thought that you might lose your sight can be frightening, and you may benefit from talking to a therapist or finding a support group. Ask your doctor for referrals.
If you’ve already lost vision, ask your doctor about low-vision products, such as magnifiers, and services that can make daily living easier.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that anyone who’s older than 10 with type 1 diabetes have his or her first eye exam within five years of being diagnosed with diabetes.
If you have type 2 diabetes, the ADA advises getting your initial eye exam at the time of your diagnosis, because you may have had diabetes for some time without knowing it.
If there’s no evidence of retinopathy on your initial exam, the ADA recommends that people with diabetes get dilated and comprehensive eye exams at least every two years. If you have any level of retinopathy, you’ll need eye exams at least annually. Ask your eye doctor what he or she recommends.
The ADA recommends that women with diabetes have an eye exam before becoming pregnant or during the first trimester of pregnancy and be closely followed during the pregnancy and up to one year after giving birth. Pregnancy can sometimes cause diabetic retinopathy to develop or worsen.
Here’s some information to help you get ready for your eye appointment.
For diabetic retinopathy, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
Don’t hesitate to ask other questions you have.
Your doctor is likely to ask you a number of questions, including:
Smoking has long been known to cause heart disease and lung cancer; however many people don’t realize that smoking can lead to vision loss. Studies show smoking increases the risk of age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy and Dry Eye Syndrome.
Healthy habits can lead to healthy eyes. The risk of eye disease and vision loss can be lowered if you::
AMD begins as a loss of central vision which makes it difficult to read and see fine details. Over time, vision loss increases significantly. Of the two types of AMD, “dry” and “wet,” dry AMD is the most common. In dry AMD, fatty deposits form under the light-sensing cells in the back of the eye (retina). Vision loss in dry AMD usually gets worse slowly. In wet AMD, tiny blood vessels under the retina leak or break open. This changes vision and causes scar tissue to form. Wet AMD is less common, but more quickly harmful to vision.
Glaucoma causes a gradual break down of the cells that make up the nerve in your eye that sends visual information to your brain (optic nerve). As the nerve cells die, vision is slowly lost, usually beginning with side vision. Often the loss of vision is not noticeable until a large amount of nerve damage has occurred. This is the reason why as many as half of all people with glaucoma may be unaware that they have it.
Cataract is a clouding of the eye’s naturally clear lens. It usually gets worse as we get older. Most cataracts are related to aging. Cataracts are very common in older people. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery.
Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes. It affects the tiny blood vessels of the retina in the eye. Retinal blood vessels can break down, leak or become blocked and this can affect vision over time. In some people with diabetic retinopathy, serious damage to the eye can occur when new blood vessels grow on the surface of the retina.
Dry Eye Syndrome is an eye disease that appears as damaged blood vessels in the eye. This can lead to eye irritation, itchy and scratchy eyes, and burning sensation of the eyes.
Keratitis is an inflammation of the cornea — the clear, dome-shaped tissue on the front of your eye that covers the pupil and iris. Keratitis may or may not be associated with an infection. Noninfectious keratitis can be caused by a relatively minor injury, by wearing your contact lenses too long or by a foreign body in the eye. Infectious keratitis can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.
If you have eye redness or other symptoms of keratitis, make an appointment to see your doctor. With prompt attention, mild to moderate cases of keratitis can usually be effectively treated without loss of vision. If left untreated, or if an infection is severe, keratitis can lead to serious complications that may permanently damage your vision.
Signs and symptoms of keratitis include:
If you notice any of the signs or symptoms of keratitis, make an appointment to see your doctor right away. Delays in diagnosis and treatment of keratitis can lead to serious complications, including blindness.
Causes of keratitis include:
Factors that may increase your risk of keratitis include:
Potential complications of keratitis include:
If you wear contact lenses, proper use, cleaning and disinfecting can help prevent keratitis. Follow these tips:
Some forms of viral keratitis can’t be completely eliminated. But the following steps may control viral keratitis occurrences:
