Did you know that vision loss after 40 may be so gradual and silent that people affected by the blinding conditions are often unaware of visual deterioration until their sight has already been compromised?
Several conditions might cause reduced vision after the age of 40, one of them is presbyopia, which comes from the Greek meaning “aging eye”.
With an age, the natural crystalline lens becomes less flexible and it becomes unable to change the shape to focus on nearby objects. For example, it becomes increasingly difficult to read a menu, read books, sewing, playing chess, etc. The most common treatment for presbyopia is to use reading glasses.
With an age, your eyes may suddenly sting, burn or water excessively. This can be a sign of dry eye , this especially common in women undergoing hormonal changes that can alter the quality of tears affecting the surface of the eye.
You may also experience cloudy vision, halos around the lights and faded colour vision. These can be a sign of cataract, a clouding of the eye’s crystalline lens that nearly everyone develops with an age. Treatment for cataracts is a surgery, it has been shown to improve vision and significantly improve the quality of life.
However, there are more serious eye diseases which may lead to significant vision loss or blindness if not detected at an early stage such as Glaucoma, Age related macular degenerations (AMD), diabetic macular oedema, retinal vein occlusions and other retinal conditions.
Nowadays, new technologies for example 3D optical coherence tomography retinal imaging allow to produce a 3D map of the part of the retina and the optic nerve and these images assisting eye doctors in making diagnoses and in detecting the early signs of blinding eye conditions.
Despite of advanced technology, there are unfortunate cases, patients who waited too long to see an eye doctor, and now they sadly face irreversible vision loss.
The earlier an eye condition is detected and treated the better it can be managed and that is why you should have a baseline eye check at age 40, when many of the above-mentioned conditions begin to appear.
If you have diabetes, high blood pressure or family history of eye disease, please get appointment with the eye doctor (ophthalmologist) to determine how often your eyes should be examined.
