How You See (A Short Lesson in A Paragraph)
Everything you look at is constantly reflecting rays of light. The rays enter your eyes and fall on the lining at the back of your eye, which is called the retina. Your retina contains receptors cells which are stimulated by the light. (The retina is like the film in a camera.) They send impulses to your brain, which interprets them so you can see! Kinda cool, isn’t it?
Eyes are way cool, BUT OFTEN need correction…
All healthy eyes will change naturally and predictably with the passage of time. If the visual status of an eye changes, it does not indicate deterioration. If your eyes are healthy and clear, your eyesight can be restored to its original level by simply making a change in your eye prescription. Your new visual correction will assist your eyes so that they can function at their maximum level of comfort and clarity.
Myopia (my-O-pee-ah) or Nearsightedness
Myopia is caused by an eye that is naturally too strong in refractive power and or an eye that is deeper or larger in size than average. Since the nearsighted eye requires less power to see clearly, the eyes’ natural focusing ability cannot help correct this condition. Nearsightedness can be easily correctly with prescription eye wear and or contact lenses that make the rays of light diverge (bend outwards) before they enter the eyes.
Progression of myopia is due to genetic and functional factors. Just as your eye color is inherited, so too may be the amount of myopia. This “genetic” cause of myopia will usually progress until about eighteen years of age, remain fairly stable in your twenties and thirties and generally decrease beyond your forties. “Functional” myopia, however, can develop and contribute to nearsightedness at any age as a stress response to close-range tasks such as reading, writing, computer use, etc
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Hypermetropia (hi-per-me-TRO-pee-ah) or Farsightedness; also known as Hyperopia
Farsighted people usually have short eyeballs and the image of near objects falls behind the retina. This can be corrected by wearing prescription eye wear and or contact lenses which make the rays of light converge (bend inwards) before they enter the eye. This condition may also be genetic in nature.
Astigmatism (a-STIG-ma-tizm)
An astigmatism is caused by an irregularity of the lens or cornea in the eye. It may also be inherited. This condition causes images to be out of focus and produces slightly distorted vision without correction. It is easily corrected with corrective lenses or now even contact lenses.
Presbyopia (prez-bee-O-pee-ah)
Presbyopia is the inability to focus on objects nearby due to the loss of elasticity of the lens that occurs with age. This unavoidable decline in close-range focusing ability occurs gradually and predictably throughout our lifetime. This condition usually begins in the mid-forties and is why people who never wore glasses often need reading glasses. So, now you can tell mom or dad that their new reading glasses are a normal part of aging. They will appreciate that!