When the doctor told you that you needed bifocals, you may have protested (verbally or only mentally) that you weren’t that old. Actually, you probably weren’t, even though a few grey hairs may have started to show up here and there. The average person begins to need bifocals in their 40s, and then only if he or she does reading or close work. Five hundred years ago when most people where illiterate and/or occupied with farming, bifocals were not necessary. (The life span was much shorter, too.) Today, they are almost indispensable. Read the rest of this entry »
You were probably not too thrilled the first time you were told you needed glasses, but as long as you must wear them, why not learn how they work? Obviously, glasses are made up of lenses and a frame. The frame can be made of plastic, metal, or a combination of the two; its function is to keep the lenses positioned in front of your eyes. The part that sits on the bridge of your nose Ls called, quite logically, the “bridge,” and the handles which it on your ears are called “temples.” Read the rest of this entry »
Color vision is routinely screened during the regular examination to detect any gross color deficiencies. For occupations requiring an excellent “color sense” such as printer, art director, stage-scenery designer, cloth dyer, etc., or for the detection of an early stage of a disease, more extensive color tests are administered. One such test requires arranging a series of round, colored discs in the correct sequence of hues. The most sophisticated color test, the anomaloscope, used mostly in research, challenges the person to mix primary green and red light sources together to match a standard yellow light. Read the rest of this entry »
Normal vision is made up of two integrated systems—accurate, sharp sight when looking directly at an object coupled with a general awareness of the scene around you. To get the idea, do this simple experiment: Look straight ahead, hold your arms out at shoulder level and wriggle your fingers. With good peripheral vision you should be aware of the motion of your fingers. (This also illustrates that at the extreme edges of your field of vision, the main attention-getter is motion.) Read the rest of this entry »
This would seem to be the opposite of the dry eye, but in reality, sometimes is a reaction to the dry eye. Older people are commonly the victims, and the doctor must differentiate between an eye “feeling” wet vs. tears actually running down the cheeks. Read the rest of this entry »
As a student of art, I learned that when drawing a portrait of someone it was important to capture the gesture of the pose. This meant you had to see, and draw, how the action of the pose was expressed by the angle and weight of the body. Read the rest of this entry »
Increasing consumption of green, leafy vegetables, in particular spinach and kale, may decrease the risk of developing age- related macular degeneration.’ A possibly lower risk for macular degeneration was also suggested among people who had a higher intake of foods containing vitamin C. Read the rest of this entry »
Macular degeneration is the deterioration of a portion of the retina which progressively impairs the central field of vision. It can drastically diminish vision, but will not result in complete vision loss since peripheral vision is not affected. Read the rest of this entry »
Lens powers are measured in diopters. The higher the number, the stronger the lens. Plus signs ( + ) are used to indicate reading glasses or magnifying lenses. Minus signs ( — ) are used for indicating distance or reducing lenses. Read the rest of this entry »
Health of the eye
Complications affecting the health of the eye are extremely rare, but are possible. During the early healing phase, the eye is susceptible to infection. You will be asked to follow certain instructions, including using antibiotic eyedrops. Read the rest of this entry »
