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Vision is the best gift from god to humans
and although eye is compared to a camera, but till
date no camera has reached the level of perfection
that eye has. Eye functions to focus objects around
us with perfect clarity. In a normal person (emmetropia)
refraction occurs at the cornea and the lens and
the rays of light come to a precise focus onto the
retina without any extra effort to focus. The inability
of the eye to accurately focus the rays of light
coming from distance on the retina is called refractive
error. There are different types of refractive errors:
Myopia (near-sightedness):
This is the condition where the light is focused
in front of the retina. The reason for same could
be either the eye is too long or the converging
power of the eye i.e. the curvature of cornea is
increased. The vision for distance is blurred but
the patient can see near objects relatively clearly.
Hypermetropia (far-sightedness):
This is the condition where the light is focused
behind the retina. In hyperopia either the eye is
too short or the converging power of eye i.e. the
curvature of cornea is less than normal. The latter
can be overcome by increase use of eye muscles which
cause change in shape of natural lens where it’s
converging power increases and the objects are focussed
on retina (accommodation). When young, the eye’s
accommodative power is high and patient doesn’t
feel the strain but with age when the accommodative
power of eye decreases, the symptoms like headache,
strain etc appears. Reading glasses are needed at
a relatively early age. Later, distance glasses
(plus) are needed as well.
Astigmatism:
This is the condition where the eye does not
focus the light evenly, usually due to the cornea
of the eye being more curved in one direction than
the other. This causes light to focus on more than
one point in the eye, resulting in blurred vision
at distance or near. Astigmatism often occurs along
with nearsightedness or farsightedness. Patients
with astigmatism have a tendency to squeeze their
eyes to see the things clearly.
Presbyopia
Presbyopia is the normal aging process, where the
lens progressively loses its capacity to increase
its power for near vision (loss of accommodation).
Presbyopia is generally believed to stem from a
gradual loss of flexibility of the natural lens
inside our eye. The eye’s lens stiffens with age,
losing its ability to focus at near objects. The
distance vision may be normal, but the near vision
becomes blurred with age greater than about 40 years.
This is corrected by wearing reading glasses (plus)
for the near work. This condition may occur in itself
or may be present along with pre-existing myopia,
hypermetropia or astigmatism.
What are the ways of treating refractive errors?
The refractive errors may be treated by either of
the following ways:
- Glasses : this is the simplest and most
popular way of correcting refractive errors
- Contact lens: it is cosmetically better
option though the maintenance and cleaning of
contact lenses may be cumbersome. There is also
a slight risk of infection to the cornea, if
the contact lenses are not cleaned properly
before use.
- Refractive surgeries: these are increasingly
becoming popular with the advent of more predictable
laser treatments.
Our centre provides all possible treatments including
the latest and the most advanced options for correction
of all types of refractive errors suiting your condition
and budget.
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