Eyes are one beautiful organ that is said to reflect our soul. Beautiful, sparkling eyes add to the beauty of a person. Though eyes are small in size than other organs, it is incredibly complex structure. We use our eyes more than any other sense to plot the space around us. A single glance that lasts for only few seconds is capable of sending information about the size, color, texture, and shape of an object. It also helps us to judge the distance, size, and movement of an object. Eyes send thousands of such signals to the brain every day that help us understand the world around us. Our eyes is just like a mini camera that receives, focuses, and transmits light through lens and creates a picture of our surrounding. In camera the image is created on a film similarly in eyes image is created on the retina. The light signal that the retina receives is converted into nerve signals and is send to the brain through optic nerves. Without retina the eyes cannot send signal to the brain, which results in vision loss.
About Vision loss
Visual impairment is very common and most of the readers might have suffered from some type of visual impairment at some of time. Some might find difficulty in seeing a far away object and some might not be able to see near-by objects, some cannot read small prints. All these issues can be treated with eye glasses. But in many unfortunate people, if some part of the eyes or brain that is important to process an image is damaged, it can result in severe or complete loss of vision. In such cases, restoring the loss vision by medical treatment is impossible. Vision loss can be of two types, either complete vision loss (blindness) or partial vision loss (limited vision). Vision loss can happen suddenly or can be a gradual process. It is estimated that about 10 million Americans suffer from visual impairment.
Causes of vision loss
Anything that hinders the passage of light from the environment to the retina or from the retina to the brain results in visual impairment. Loss of vision in teenage is very rare, and if it happens it might be because of injury or accidents. In some, visual impairment is congenital (from birth), which may be inherited or caused due to infection that has passed from mother to the developing fetus. Vision loss may be due to many causes. Depending on the causes the type of vision loss may vary. The leading causes of vision loss are
- Age-related vision loss
- Accident or injury like chemical burns or sports injury
- Glaucoma (damaged optic nerve due to increased in eye pressure)
- Macular degeneration (gradual loss of sharp, central vision)
- Cataract results in cloudy or fuzzy images and problem in judging shapes
- Diabetes may result in blurred vision, shadows vision or missing some areas of an object, and problem with night vision
- Blockage of blood vessels
- Corneal damage due to vitamin A deficiency
- Side-effects of surgery
- Amblyopia, loss of one eye’s ability to see details
- Inflamed optic nerve resulting in optic neuritis
- Stroke
- Retinitis pigmentosa (damaged retina)
- Presence of tumors like retinoblastoma and optic glioma
- Trachoma, inflammation of the eye due to contagious microorganism Chlamydia trachomatis
- Fatigue
- Over-exposure of the eyes to outdoors
- Few medications
Identifying vision loss
Few symptoms that signals that a person is suffering from vision loss are
- Blurred, cloudy or fuzzy image
- Difficulty focusing on close objects
- Dark spots in the center of vision
- Double vision or ghost vision
- Difficulty focusing on the extremes of an image
- Difficulty adjusting from light to dark and from dark to light
- Poor night vision
- Halos around light
- Sensitive to light that causes blinking, tearing, and extreme squinting of eyes
- Fading out colors
- Tiny floaters across the eyes that is due to retinal detachment
- Pain while moving the eyes or touching it
- Flashes of light across the vision
- Shady vision or sensation of curtain hanging on one side of the image
Diagnosis
Sudden or gradual vision loss is an emergency condition and should be dealt immediately. Ignoring partial or complete visual impairment can result in permanent vision loss. It is better to consult an ophthalmologist than a general physician. In the doctor’s office a detailed eye examination will be performed. The ophthalmologist will check eye movement, pupil, iris, pain in the eye, back of the eye, and eye pressure. The diagnosis will begin with few questions about vision loss like – when did it occur? How often it occurs? Is it in one eye or both eyes? What the person experiences – like blurred vision, double vision, double spot, tunnel vision, or missing images; about appearance of flash lights, about any injury, does it gets better after wearing corrective lenses, about medicines, diabetes, and many more.
Along with this he may also perform few tests like
- Slit-lamp examination: The front structures of the eye are examined using a low-power microscope that has high-intensity light source, which is focused into the person’s eye as a thin beam of light. This helps to examine eyelids, sclera, conjunctivitis, iris, lens and cornea
- Refraction test: Is a simple test done to check the extent of visual impairment and helps to measure a person’s prescription for eye-glasses
- Visual acuity test: The person will be asked to read a chart and how well he reads at various distances will be noted
- Visual field test: Done to measure side or peripheral vision
- Tonometry: This is done to measure the fluid pressure inside the eyes to evaluate glaucoma
Treatment
Many treatment options are available if the doctor determines that the person has eye problems that can lead to visual impairment. Treatment options usually are based on the type of vision loss. Treatment options include eyeglasses, lenses, eye-drops, medicines, and surgery. In some cases large printed books, text-reading software, and Braille can be of great help. It is very important that diabetic patients control their blood sugar level.
Prevention
Few tips to prevent vision loss are
- Regular eye check-ups from an ophthalmologist
- Eye check-up once every year if above 65 years
- If diabetic, then an early and frequent eye check-up is needed
- Frequently measure the eye pressure for glaucoma
- Wear sunglasses to protect eyes
- Protect eyes while swimming, skiing, working with power tools, and during sports activity
- Check blood pressure and cholesterol level and keep them close to normal
- Maintain blood glucose level close to normal
- Include foods that are rich in anti-oxidants like green-leafy vegetables
- Consume foods that are rich in vitamin A
- Limit alcohol consumption
- Quit smoking
Conclusion
A loss of vision changes the entire life of a person. Loss of vision means that the person ahs to reorganize his/her life and learn new ways of doing things. Much visual impairment can be treated completely but in some, vision loss cannot be restored completely even after proper treatment. Just as we do not give importance or ignore too many things in life it is important that people with vision loss also ignore their condition and learn ways to cope up with vision loss. This is the only option left for people in whom vision loss cannot be treated.
