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Eye Problems & Diseases Archives

Conjunctivitis – What is conjunctivitis?

Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) is a type of eye infection that specifically affects the membranes under the eyelids and covering the white portions of the eye. Note that the term specifies where on the eye that the infection has occurred, not the cause. Conjunctivitis may have a viral, bacterial, allergic, or chemical cause, just like other types of eye infections.

What are the symptoms?

Pink Eye is a particularly common eye problem in newborns and children. Symptoms include redness in the whites of the eyes or eyelids (which led to the name Pink Eye), tearing, and itchiness.
How to stop the spread of conjunctivitis

Bacterial and viral forms of conjunctivitis can be highly contagious. It is easy to spread the infection from one eye to the other or from one child to the other. Sharing a towel, swimming with an infected child, or picking up a used tissue can be enough to transmit the infection.

To help stop the spread of pink eye, wash your hands often, especially after treating the infected eye, and teach your children to do the same. Also make sure that your child knows not to touch the eye, even if it is itchy or watery, with his or her bare hands. Be sure not to share any wash cloths, eye makeup, handkerchiefs, or tissues until a week after the infection is passed.

As a further precaution, it is a good idea to keep the infected person’s laundry, including clothes, linens, and towels, separate from the rest of the family, and to wash them in hot water between uses.

When to see your doctor

Although this type of eye infection is normally not serious, it is a good idea to consult with a doctor if your child has it.

Some types of pink eye can be treated with antibiotics, ibuprofen, or antihistamines, and your doctor can also ensure that the infection is truly conjunctivitis and not a more serious condition.

Myopia – Short Sightedness and Its treatments

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The inability to see things clearly when they are at a distance is called myopia, more commonly known as near sightedness. People who are nearsighted have trouble with tasks like reading highway signs or the blackboard. Myopia is hereditary, and usually appears early in childhood. It is most often treated with corrective lenses, either spectacles or contact lenses. In a prescription for corrective lenses, a lens meant to correct nearsightedness will have a negative number, and the higher the number the stronger the correction provided.

Approximately 30% of the population is nearsighted. If you find that objects that are near to you appear clear, but objects that are at a distance seem blurred, you may be nearsighted. If you have frequent headaches and eyestrain even when wearing your glasses, you should have your vision re-evaluated to be sure that your prescription is still adequate for your needs.

Recent years have seen some interesting and hopeful advances in the treatment of myopia. Refractive surgery using lasers has become increasingly common. Some of the more common of those procedures include Lasik surgery and PRK surgery. In both of these treatments a special laser scalpel is used to reshape the cornea in order to focus light properly on the retina.

Another area that’s being explored with considerable success is reshaping the cornea using contact lenses. Known as orthokeratology, the process involves wearing specially made contact lenses that gradually reshape your cornea so that when you remove them, your cornea temporarily retains the new shape, giving you clear vision without the contact lenses in place. In a similar treatment, called corneal refractive therapy which was approved in 2002, corneal shaping lenses are worn at night and offer clear vision without contact lenses during the day.

All about Presbyopia

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Many believe that presbyopia is a disease, but it is not. Presbyopia is actually the eyes inability to adjust and accommodate changes in lighting and focus as the body ages. Many experts believe that presbyopia is caused by a loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens or even changes in the shape of the lens or the loss of power in the ciliary muscles, though the specific cause is not known. Much has been written on the condition, and for all experts know each case has a different cause, what experts do know is that we will all experience the condition sooner or later.

Presbyopia doesn’t pick and choose its victims, because it literally affects everyone at some point in their life, usually it starts anywhere from age 40-50.

The first symptoms are usually the inability to read fine print, to read in dim lighting, and some patients experience strained eyes when they read for long periods of time. The condition is usually less noticeable in bright natural light as the iris closes so that the depth of focus is enhanced. It seems as though the ability to focus is greater, but really it is not.

Unfortunately, presbyopia is not something that can be cured, though experts believe that there may be a cure or preventative treatments in the future.

Luckily, the eyes inability to adjust can be treated with corrective lenses, glasses, and contact lenses. Many that suffer from this condition find that bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses are quite helpful in eliminating or at least reducing the symptoms of presbyopia. Many patients find that wearing just one lens will help the symptoms so that they will again be able to read without trouble.

By the age of 65 most people report symptoms of full-blown presbyopia, but most find ways to cope with the symptoms. Some find that reading glasses help them read every day things such as prescription bottles and recipe cards with little or no effort. Many people don’t like the idea of contact lenses or corrective lenses so they continue to hold things further and further away as they age. You’ll find as you get older that you just hold things further and further away from your face as you read! The action that you choose to take to deal with presbyopia is your choice and usually has to do with how severely you are affected.

Hyperopia – Treatments for Farsightedness

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Is it hard for you to see things that are close up even though your distance vision is as acute as ever? Farsightedness is the result of an abnormality in the structure of your eyes that makes it difficult for them to focus on objects that are close to you. While farsightedness is often present from the time that you’re a child, it’s often not apparent until middle age when your eyes start losing their ability to adjust focus from near to far quickly and easily.

Farsightedness runs in families, although injuries or diseases in the eye may contribute to the condition in rare cases. It is most often diagnosed with a simple eye test, though headaches and eyestrain can signal problems with farsightedness in adults.

There are a number of options for correcting farsightedness, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Eyeglasses

The most common treatment for farsightedness is eyeglasses with corrective lenses. They are the easiest and safest option for improving your vision if you have hyperopia. Glasses are readily available and can be fitted with precision and accuracy. Nearly everyone can wear eyeglasses, which can easily be replaced if the prescription needs changing.

On the other hand, eyeglasses aren’t an option for people in some professions such as fire-fighting. They can be expensive, uncomfortable and fragile.

Contact Lenses

Contact lenses have become more and more popular as the materials and styles available have improved. Today’s soft contact lenses are fitted with nearly as much precision as glasses, and provide better peripheral vision. In many cases the choice to wear contact lenses rather than glasses is a matter of appearance – you may simply feel you look better without glasses.

On the flip side, contact lenses can be more expensive than glasses. If you’re not suited to wearing disposable or extended wear contact lenses, disinfecting and cleaning your contact lenses daily can be inconvenient.

Eye Surgery

Another option for correcting farsightedness is eye surgery. A surgeon skilled with a laser scalpel can reshape the cornea of the eye so that light focuses directly on the retina as it’s supposed to do rather than behind the retina, which distorts the vision. The results of surgery are variable, but when it is most successful, laser eye surgery can completely eliminate the need for glasses or contact lenses.

Great News for Astigmatism Sufferers – Multi-focal Contact Lenses!

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In the early days of contact lenses, anyone with astigmatism was deemed unsuitable to wear them. Now – technology has advanced and unless your prescription is particularly complicated, your astigmatism may be corrected with multifocus contact lenses.

Hang on – you’ve lost me…what is astigmatism?

Astigmatism is a condition of the cornea of the eye. The cornea is the clear ‘layer’ of the eye that covers the iris (the colored part) and the pupil (the black dot in the middle). The function of the cornea is to let light into the eye, which allows you to see.

A ‘normal’ cornea is shaped like a tennis ball. Light enters it and is focused on a single point of the retina. The retina is a membrane lining the eye. It gets images via the lens of the eye which are changed into signals and sent to the brain via the optic nerve.

If you have astigmatism, your cornea is shaped more like an egg. This means that the light is focused on more than one point on the retina and this gives you blurry vision. It can also cause you to see shadows on letters when you’re reading, make you squint and cause double vision.
Toric Contact Lenses May Be The Answer…

A toric contact lens has two different strengths of prescription. These are at right angles to each other which corrects the astigmatism. Torics are available in soft lenses, rigid gas permeable ones and also multifocals.

In order to correct the astigmatism, the contact lens must stay in one position in the eye. There are two ways to achieve this.

1. The lenses have a ‘ballast’ – the bottom edge of the lens is thicker than the top edge, which prevents it moving around or

2. The middle of the lens is thicker than the top and bottom edges.

What Sort Of Torics Are Available?

* Daily disposable
* Monthly Disposable
* Frequent replacement
* Silicone hydrogel for 30 day wear
* Eye color changers
* Eye color enhancers

What Other Multifocal Contact Lenses Are There?

Aspheric contacts have different prescriptions blended across them. They are known as ‘simultaneous vision’ or ‘progressive’ lenses as your eyes have to learn how to choose to see through the appropriate prescription for what you are doing.

This sounds very complicated but aspherics are the most popular type of multifocal contact lens so it can’t be that difficult!

Many people can and do. There may be a period of trial and error while you work with your eye care professional to find what’s best.

Most multi-focal contact lens manufacturers are aware that not everyone will be able to wear them. For this reason, they offer a warranty on their lenses so that if you’re unlucky and can’t get on with them, you can get a different pair of lenses or a pair of spectacles. However, part of the money that you pay to have contact lenses fitted is for the professional time taken during that fitting and subsequent follow-ups. So you may not get back the whole amount that you paid to try the multi-focals. However, you should leave the eye doctor with some form of eyewear that corrects your vision.

Dry Eyes – Causes, Treatment and Prevention of Dry Eyes

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Have you ever had the feeling that your eyes are filled with sand? If your eyes are red, itchy, sore, or gritty-feeling, then you may be experiencing a very common eye problem known as dry eyes. What causes your eyes to become dry and what can you do about it?

Our eyes are usually lubricated through the production of moisture by the tear ducts. This moisture is mostly water, but it also includes oils, mucus, and proteins which keep your eyes feeling moist and smooth.

Your eyes become dry for two reasons:

* Something interrupts the normal production of moisture by the tear ducts
* Unusual conditions cause the amount of produced moisture to be insufficient.

Causes of dry eyes

Examples of circumstances that can interrupt the moisture production in your eyes include aging and/or menopause, blockage, tearing, or other problems with the tear ducts, your body’s reaction to certain medications, and diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Sjogren’s syndrome.

Outside conditions that can cause your eyes to feel dry include working in a windy or dusty environment, dry air caused by air conditioning or heating, and smoking cigarettes. Finally, getting caught up in a movie or book, or while working on a computer screen, may cause you to blink too infrequently. If you don’t blink often enough, the moisture will not spread evenly over your eye, and it may evaporate too quickly.
Treatments

For some people, the occasional use of artificial lubricants such as tear drops is enough to restore the feeling of moist, healthy eyes. If dryness in the eyes recurs or is not eased by artificial teardrops, consult your doctor. You may need a simple procedure, such as blocking your tear ducts with a plug to resolve your problem. If this doesn’t work, there are forms of outpatient surgery that can prevent the moisture in your eyes from draining away too quickly.