Common Eye Disorders

Conjunctivitis

Conjunctivitis, commonly called "pink eye", is a redness of the eye. It is often accompanied by a discharge (clear, yellow, or white) and itching in the eye.

Causes

Pink eye is most often a viral infection, but may also be caused by bacteria or allergic reaction. The viral pink eye is highly contagious.

Prevention and Treatment

To avoid spreading conjunctivitis, wash your hands often, don’t touch the infected area with your hands, don’t share wash cloths or towels, and avoid using makeup which may become contaminated.

A child with pink eye should be kept from school for a few days. Sometimes an eye doctor will need to prescribe antibiotic eye drops and ointments to remove conjunctivitis.

Myopia (Nearsighted)

Myopia, unlike normal vision, occurs when the cornea is too curved or the eye is too long. This causes light to focus in front of the retina, resulting in blurry distance vision. Nearsightedness is the most common refractive disorder. It is estimated that one in every four people is myopic, meaning near vision remains clear, but distance is blurred. Myopia is caused by either a long eyeball, a highly curved cornea or both. This causes light to focus in front of the retina. The term "nearsightedness" means you can see objects "near" to your more clearly than distant objects.

Myopia is a very common condition that affects nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population. It normally starts to appear between the ages of eight and 12 years old, and almost always before the age of 20. As the body grows, the condition often worsens. It typically stabilizes in adulthood.

Symptoms of myopia:

Blurry distance vision

Causes of myopia:

Heredity

Diagnosing myopia:

Many times, myopia is diagnosed during school screenings. Sometimes parents notice that their children are having difficulty seeing street signs or the television. Your eye doctor can conduct a refractive evaluation to determine whether your eyes focus light rays exactly on the retina at distance and near. A visual acuity test will determine your ability to see sharply and clearly at all distances. Your eye doctor will also check your eye coordination and muscle control, as well as your eyes' ability to change focus. All of these are important factors in how your eyes see.

Treatment of myopia:

Glasses and contact lenses are used for the treatment of myopia. LASIK vision correction can surgically reduce or eliminate myopia.

Hyperopia (Farsighted)

Farsighted people usually see distant objects more clearly than close objects. Farsightedness is caused by any combination of a short eyeball and flat corneal curvature. In this case, light hits the retina before it can come into sharp focus.

Hyperopia, unlike normal vision, occurs when the cornea is too flat in relation to the length of the eye. This causes light to focus at a point beyond the retina, resulting in blurry close vision and occasionally blurry distance vision as well. Usually this condition is undetected until later in life because the young eye is able to compensate for the hyperopia by contracting the internal lens of the eye.

Symptoms of hyperopia:

Blurry close vision
Occasionally, blurry distance vision

Causes of hyperopia:

Heredity

Diagnosing hyperopia:

Many people are not diagnosed with hyperopia without a complete eye exam. School screenings typically do not detect this condition because they test only for distance vision. Your eye doctor can conduct a refractive evaluation to determine whether your eyes focus light rays exactly on the retina at distance and near. A visual acuity test will determine your ability to see sharply and clearly at all distances. Your eye doctor will also check your eye coordination and muscle control, as well as your eyes' ability to change focus. All of these are important factors in how your eyes see.

Treatment of hyperopia:

Glasses and contact lenses are used for the treatment of hyperopia. LASIK vision correction can surgically reduce or eliminate hyperopia.

Astigmatism

Astigmatism, unlike normal vision, occurs when the cornea is shaped like a football (more curved in one direction than the other) and often occurs in combination with myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness). This causes light to focus in more than one point on the retina, resulting in blurry and distorted vision.

Symptoms of astigmatism:

Blurry, distorted vision at all distances

Causes of astigmatism:

Heredity
Lid swellings such as chalazia
Corneal scars
Keratoconus

Diagnosing astigmatism:

Your eye doctor can conduct a refractive evaluation to determine whether your eyes focus light rays exactly on the retina at distance and near. A visual acuity test will determine your ability to see sharply and clearly at all distances. Your eye doctor will also check your eye coordination and muscle control, as well as your eyes' ability to change focus. All of these are important factors in how your eyes see.

Treatment of astigmatism:

Glasses and contact lenses are used for treatment of astigmatism. LASIK vision correction can surgically reduce or eliminate astigmatism.

Presbyopia

Presbyopia is a vision condition in which the lens loses its flexibility, making it difficult to focus on close objects. During the early and middle years of life, the crystalline lens of the eye has the ability to focus both near and distant images by getting thicker for near objects and thinner for distant objects. When this ability is lost, presbyopia results.

Symptoms of presbyopia:

Blurry close vision that starts after age 40
Difficulty adjusting focus when switching from near to distance vision
Eye fatigue along with headaches when doing close work

Causes of presbyopia:

Age: As we age, the lenses in the eyes lose some of their elasticity, and without elasticity they lose some of their ability to change focus for different distances. Presbyopia may seem to occur suddenly, but the actual loss of flexibility takes place over a number of years. Long before an individual is aware that seeing close up is becoming more difficult, the lenses in the eyes have begun losing their ability to flatten and thicken. Only when the loss of elasticity impairs vision to a noticeable degree is the change recognized. Presbyopia usually becomes noticeable in the early to mid-forties.

Diagnosing presbyopia:

A comprehensive examination will include testing for presbyopia. Your eye doctor can conduct a refractive evaluation to determine whether your eyes focus light rays exactly on the retina at distance and near. A visual acuity test will determine your ability to see sharply and clearly at all distances. Your eye doctor will also check your eye coordination and muscle control, as well as your eyes' ability to change focus. All of these are important factors in how your eyes see.

Treatment of presbyopia:

Reading glasses and contact lenses are used by many for the temporary treatment of presbyopia. However, there are a number of vision correction procedures that can surgically reduce or eliminate the effects of presbyopia. Some presbyopic patients like monovision, which allows them to see distance clearly in one eye and close-up clearly with the other eye.

Presbyopia can be present in combination with other types of refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve which is located in the back of the eye. The optic nerve carries the images we see to the brain. Most of you already know that glaucoma has something to do with the "pressure " within the eye. The higher the pressure inside the eye, the greater the chance of damage to the optic nerve.

When you think Optic Nerve, think of millions of telephone wires. Glaucoma can cause damage to these "phone wires" (aka optic nerve fibers), causing blind spots to develop. Usually, these blind spots are a constriction of the side vision over a long period of time. Unfortunately, because this happens so slowly and there is no associated pain, a patient can be totally unaware that there is a vision threatening problem.

For this reason, early detection and treatment by an optometrist is the key to prevent your vision from being robbed.

What Causes Glaucoma?

Let's learn a new word and its definition. AQUEOUS HUMOR is a clear, watery fluid that nourishes the cornea, iris, lens, and maintains intraocular pressure. This liquid is not part of the tears on the outer surface of the eye. You can think of the flow of aqueous fluid as a sink with the faucet turned on all the time. If the "drainpipe" gets clogged, water collects in the sink and the pressure builds up. If the drainage area of the eye (DRAINAGE ANGLE) is blocked, the fluid pressure within the inner eye may increase, which can damage the optic nerve. This is a VERY subtle pressure which, in the most common type of Glaucoma, does not hurt and happens over a long period of time. The result of this pressure increase as it pushes against the optic nerve, is constriction (of loss of) the side vision.

How is Glaucoma Detected?

A regular eye examination will measure your intraocular pressure (TONOMETRY); inspect the drainage angle of your eye (GONIOSCOPY); evaluate any optic nerve damage (OPHTHALMOSCOPY); and test the visual field of each eye (PERIMETRY). Some of theses tests that detect Glaucoma may only be ordered if your ophthalmologist suspects you have glaucoma.

How is Glaucoma treated?

Glaucoma cannot be cured, nor can lost vision be replaced or regenerated. However, further visual damage can be prevented by special glaucoma eye drops, pills, laser, and surgery.

With any type of glaucoma (and we've only discussed the most common type), periodic examinations are very important to prevent vision loss.

Who is at Risk for Glaucoma?

High blood pressure alone does not mean you have glaucoma. Your optometrist collects a tremendous amount of information to determine if you are a risk for developing glaucoma.

The most important factors include:

Age (over 40)
Nearsightedness
African Ancestry
a family history of glaucoma
Past injuries to the eyes
A history of severe anemia or shock

Everybody hates a thief, especially one who wants to steal your vision. Your weapon against this rogue is a routine dilated eye examination. Remember, it is YOUR vision, and YOU must do your part to maintain it.