Myopia
Myopia is an eye condition that causes an individual not to see far away. A myopic person can see objects which are near clearly, but has a difficult time seeing far away objects. This condition is corrected mostly by LASIK eye surgery. This is a common eye condition that causes impaired vision in people who are under the age of 40. In extreme and worse conditions, this eye problem can lead to serious eye-threatening conditions such as blindness. However, it is rare for this to happen unless in cases where high myopia has reached an advanced stage referred to as degenerative myopia. This condition starts at childhood when one’s eyeball grows too long. This forces light to enter at the back of the eye rather than directly ion the retina. The resultant factor is always a blurry vision where distant objects are blurry and close objects look just fine.
Causes of Myopia
The main causes of myopia is believed to be environmental and genetic. Some of the risk factors include doing work that require you to focus on close objects, family history of the same condition and spending more time indoors. Research was conducted and it was concluded that identical twins are more likely to suffer from myopia as compared to non-identical twins. This indicates that there is some genetic factors involved. In the developed world, there has been an increase in the number or people suffering from myopia. This shows the environmental side of th problem.
Symptoms of Myopia
First, people who have this eye condition have a difficult time reading road signs and seeing other signs that are far away. However, they can see near objects in that they can read a book or even use a computer. When you start experiencing problems reading the road signs, you should definitely visit an eye clinic.
Squinting, headache and straining of the eyes are also some symptoms of myopia. Squinting is caused by straining the eye to see an object which is far from its reach. This can be very uncomfortable and dangerous especially if you are waiting to cross the road. Squinting can mislead you to think that the object is far away when in reality it is close, and if at all it is a car approaching, you can be hit. Constantly squirting leads to headaches which usually occur on the sides of the forehead.
Drivers who also feel fatigued when driving might be suffering from the eye condition. This is because they are straining so much to see the road clearly to avoid accidents that may occur on the road. Fatigue is another symptom of myopia in some people. Furthermore, this can also happen when you are playing sports. It is a clear symptom of myopia.
Myopia Causes
This eye condition when an unwanted error is focuses. This means that the condition happens when you focus of looking at something that is far away. This eye problems is corrected when the shape of the cornea is altered. The cornea then transmits light internally to the eye towards the retina. The retina then interprets the image that has been sent. The image passed get distorted when the cornea is too steep or too flat. This condition also occurs when the eyeball is too long causing the rays of the light to focus at a point in front of the retina rather than directly on its surface.
Myopia is an eye condition that begins as early as from childhood, and one may be at a greater risk if your parents are also myopic. The problem grows in a person slowly until adulthood and may stabilize when a person is in his or her adulthood phase. However, it may sometimes continue to progress with age and becomes worse as one grows older.
Myopia and Treatment
This nearsightedness can be corrected by contact lenses, eye glasses or through refractive surgery. However, all the three ways that you can use to correct the eye condition depend on the degree of your myopia. You may require to put on your contact lenses or glasses throughout the time, or only when you need to clearly see a distant vision. There are good choices for eyeglass lenses some of which include wearing photo chromatic lenses to protect eyes from direct UV light and have thinner and lighter glasses, usually referred to as high-index lenses. In addition to that you can also consider using lenses that have anti-reflective coasting. Furthermore, refractive surgery can help in reducing or eliminating the need to wear contact lenses or eyeglasses. Some of the common procedures that are done using excimer laser include the following.
- LASIK surgery.
This is the most common refractive surgery done on myopia patients. It is an attractive option for correcting vision in people who are myopic. A thin flap is formed on the surface of the cornea, then the laser removes some of the corneal tissues and then the flap is finally returned to its original position. This procedure should solve the myopia problem.
- PRK laser eye surgery
This eye surgery procedure is slightly different from the laser LASIK procedure. PRK was the first type of laser eye surgery that existed for correcting vision. Moreover it is the prototype to the well-known LASIK procedure. However, with this procedure, one takes slightly a bit longer recovering as compared to the laser LASIK procedure. This type of surgery still exists and offers has amazing advantages as compared to the LASIK procedure for some eye patients. The main difference between LASIK and PRK is in the first step of each of the procedures. In PRK, the thin outer layer of the cornea is removed and thrown away before reshaping the corneal tissue with an Excimer laser. The epithelium then grows back to its original position after a few days of undergoing the surgery. PRK is used in correcting myopia by removing the layer of the corneal tissue, which in turn flattens the cornea, allowing light rays to focus more accurately on the retina.