Optimizing Your Vision

Unless you are one of the rare few that never needed glasses or contacts chances are you will need some sort of vision correction to optimize your vision. Luckily, we live in a day and age where technological advances allow for glasses and contacts to be worn comfortably and where refractive surgery is an option.

In essence, eyeballs are perfectly rounded spheres that allow us to focus on objects both close and far away. However, not everyone’s eyeballs have developed into perfectly formed spheres. A developmental error of even the smallest fraction of a millimeter can affect a person’s vision. These tiniest of flaws result in a person being nearsighted, farsighted, or having astigmatism. In order to optimize your vision you may need glasses or contacts.

Nearsightedness
If you can read a book or work at a computer for hours and see with ease but need glasses to focus on objects far away you likely have nearsightedness. Myopia, also known as nearsightedness, affects about 25% of the population. Distant objects appear fuzzy and out of focus but objects up close are easy to focus on. There can be several causes for myopia, such as the shape of your cornea, having a longer eyeball than normal (yes that can really happen), and the placement and shape of your eye’s lens. These slight errors make objects appear in front of your retina rather than on, so a blurred image is sent to the brain.

Farsightedness
Are you squinting to read this right now? Does reading give you a headache from squinting and trying to focus? If objects look blurry up close but distant objects, like road signs, aren’t a problem to focus on then you may have farsightedness. Hyperopia, also known as farsightedness, affects about 10% of the population. The causes of hyperopia are similar to those of myopia, where the shape of the cornea, the placement and shape of your eye’s lens, and a shorter than usual eyeball are all causes.

Presbyopia
Sorry, nothing lasts forever, not the Grateful Dead, not Elvis, not summer, and not your perfect vision. Presbyopia is the loss of perfect vision with age. When we are younger our eye’s lenses are able to change shape to account for objects that are close to the eye. Over time the ciliary body inside our eyes begins to lose its ability to contract. The result is that the lens becomes thicker and more rigid. This is why many elderly people have to hold newspapers and books far away in order to read: time for glasses.

Astigmatism
A normal cornea is in the shape of a partial sphere where all directions are equally curved. For some people the angles of the cornea or lens may be steeper than others. This doesn’t allow for images to fall on the retina so these images are seen by the brain as blurry.

If any of these conditions sound like something that is bothering you then you definitely want to set up an appointment for an eye exam. Contact Vision Pro to set up  an appointment and see the world with perfect vision!

How the Human Eye Sees

The eyes have been said to be ‘windows to our souls.’ Although more aptly put they are image receptors. Regardless, they are incredible sensory organs, especially once you consider how they work. The human eye is capable of seeing the flame of a candle from miles away or a speck of dust on a table. Our eyes allow us to see thousands of colors, perceive objects in three dimensions, and pick up on the slightest of movements.

The human eye is spherical in shape and despite being a small organ it is quite complex. For perfect vision every structure of the eye must work correctly, even the slightest error, a fraction of a millimeter, can affect our sight. If everything is in working order, the eye will capture light, focus that light, and then relay that image to the brain to process what is taking place.

             

When we look at an object rays of light are illuminating it. These rays are reflected off the object and into our eyes. The first structure of the eye that light hits is the cornea where light is refracted and brought into focus. After these rays exit the cornea they travel deeper into the eye to the iris and the pupil. Here the iris blocks rays of light from going deeper into the eye while the rays of light that enter the pupil are processed. Your pupil will contract or expand depending on environmental conditions. If it is bright and sunny your pupils will contract to restrict light entering the eye. It if is dark your pupils expand to allow more light to enter the eye.

Once light has been processed by the pupil it reaches the lens. Here the rays of light are refracted to bring them into focus more.  The light then continues on to the vitreous cavity, and then into further focus on the retina. Within the retina different photo receptors are stimulated by different wavelengths of light. Those that are activated send their signals to the optic nerve, which then relays a signal to your brain. Then your brain processes this information.

If you consider all the amazing things that take place within our complex eyes in order to see you can understand how important it is to receive proper eye care services and products. If it has been awhile since you have had an eye examination or it might be time to get new glasses or contacts call Vision Pro today to set up an appointment.