EYE CARE EDUCATION
Health Insights
Myopia Control for Children
The layman’s term for myopia is Short-Sightedness, where one can not see well in the distance. The main cause of progressive myopia is due to the eyeball becoming longer towards the back of the eye. It’s like a balloon being blown up, the larger it becomes, the more fragile. It is the same with the eyes. Tears can occur in the delicate retina causing retinal detachments and potential blindness. Areas of the retina can die off leaving islands of vision loss. If one of those islands occur in the central vision area, the eye is blinded. Eventual blindness is the major concern for young myopes.
The Origins of Contact Lenses
The first time that the concept of changing visual defects by altering the refractive surface of the eye was conceptualised, was when Leonardo da Vince (in 1508) took poorly sighted people to the top of a castle and had them immerse their faces in water of different shaped glass bowls. With the right shape for their eye condition, people could see the ground below clearer. That was the first contact lens but it took well over 300 years before a crude, glass-blown contact lens could be manufactured.
Scleral Contact Lenses
See the note on the history of contact lenses. Very interesting! Scleral lenses are the latest breakthrough in contacts, having revisited and perfected the original scleral contact lens idea in 1508AD (Leonardo da Vinci). As a result of new gas-permeable (oxygen breathable) materials and modern manufacturing technology, this large lens is now able to be worn healthily on the eye. It rests on the white of the eye and does not touch the central corneal part of the eye. It is therefore very comfortable. Virtually impossible conditions to fit previously are now relatively easily helped, giving good, healthy, clear vision.
Only One Eye at a Time?
“Oupa” could read a book as well as shoot a buck 300 metres away without glasses – how come?
The eye is the most amazing organ. One of the many fascinating functions is that it is self-focusing. Like the autofocus on your mobile, but without electronics. With normal-sighted eyes, this is possible for people up to about forty years of age (in South Africa). Thereafter it becomes progressively harder to focus on things up close until it is impossible to read and see finer details. Medically, we call this ‘Presbyoia’ and it happens to each and every person on earth. So what is the story regarding “oupa”?
