Your eyesight is as important as breathing. A lot of our daily activities and routines involve using our eyes. At work, you need to use the computer most of the time, you need to read and you need to interact with people. The same way when you’re simply relaxing or enjoying sports, you need to be able to see. Seeing things is something that we do on a daily basis that it seems like you don’t even think about it which is sometimes why we neglect to take care of it. When that happens, we experience eye sight problems. What are the common eye sight problems that people become afflicted with?
One common eyesight problem is myopia or near-sightedness. It is also called short sightedness because objects that are closer have a tendency to be clearer than that of distance objects. Myopia is a result of the elongated shape of the eyeball that causes light to be focused directly on the retina rather than just on its surface. Headaches are also a side effect because people with myopia usually strain to focus and see things that are farther away. Eyeglasses, contact lenses and Lasik surgery are the most common treatments for myopia.
In contrast to myopia is hyperopia or farsightedness. People who have been diagnosed with hyperopia have the ability to see distant objects like they were near but they have to strain very hard to see objects that are within their proximity. If a myopic’s eyeball is longer, a person with hyperopia has a shorter eyeball causing the light to fall behind the retina rather than directly on the surface. As with myopia, eyeglasses, contact lenses and Lasik surgery are the treatments for hyperopia.
Another common eye sight problem is astigmatism. The root of the problem for astigmatism is the shape of the eyeball which is more oblong than spherical causing two light points instead of one to focus on the retina. Symptoms that may indicate astigmatism include blurred vision at all distances and headaches. New contact lenses are now able to treat astigmatism with their Toric lenses. Eyeglasses and refractive surgery are also alternative treatments.
Presbyopia is a common eyesight disorder especially when you reach your 40’s. The eyes lose their focusing ability such that your vision for distant objects is still clear but focusing on close objects begins to degenerate. Wearing reading glasses or bifocals and now new multifocals or progressive lenses are available to correct presbyopia.