April 11, 2009
Coping with Being Myopic
One of the most everyday causes for being prescribed eyeglasses is shortsightedness
shortsightedness is another word for myopia. So a shortsighted person sees best when seeing up close, alternatively when looking into the distance - struggles to focus. Nobody really understands why one person becomes shortsighted, there is likely to be a combination of gene troubles and environmental factors.
The degree to which one is shortsighted depends on the powers of the cornea and the lens of the eye and the length of the eyeball. In a normal eye the incoming visual images meet on the retina in the back of the eye. If these visual images converge in front of the retina instead of on the retina, then one is myopic.
shortsightedness does decreases in later life. This appears not to be related to a decrease in close work as is often intimated but rather due to some ingredient intrinsically related to ageing. It has been hypothecated the power of the lens of the eye alters in later life.
About 1 in 4 Americans are nearsighted.
Using a variety of techniques, trained ophthalmic opticians can assess whether or not a child is able to focus clearly. They use play, retinoscopy and refraction to help them do this carefully.
To work out how badly nearsighted you are and the specific nature of your shortsightedness, more tests will need to be conducted. This will help to determine the type of eye spectacles that you will need. The optician will assess visual acuity, visual movements and the ability to focus on nearby targets. They may need to dilate the pupil to see if there are any rare or alarming complications.
There are many children who will be falsely assessed to be nearsighted, due to the fact that of their natural tendency to over focus. To counter this, a trained eye pratitioner will often elect to dilate the pupils with some eye drops to prevent the child’s lenses from over correcting.
specs will be needed to correct your shortsightedness. For children under the age of 4, glasses may not be needed though. .
For learning to take place at school, it is vital that they can focus on far away objects. So, if your child has myopia, make sure that they have their eyes formally assessed every 6 months or so to ensure that they have the correction spectacles that they require.
The eyeglasses are then usually worn full time, except for children with difficulty with convergence (esophoria), who may remove their specs for close work.
