Eye Care FAQ’s

Wearing contact lenses for sports is a more flexible and stable form of eye correction than eyeglasses. If your sport involves vigorous exercise, a soft contact lens is an appropriate choice. Many top athletes choose soft contacts lenses for sport. Your eye care practitioner can help determine the best type of lenses based on your sport or activity.

A cataract is when the lens inside the eye gets cloudy preventing you from seeing clearly. It is not a curtain or film that grows over the eye. Cataracts develop to a greater or lesser extent in many people as they get older, but often don’t affect people’s eyesight severely, if at all.

We recommend regular eye exams so if any problems are forming they can be detected early on. The most common problem seen by an eye doctor is the need for glasses. Most children can adapt to blurred vision or accommodate (focus) through a considerable amount of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism without showing any problems. They also do not have the ability to verbally communicate what they are seeing, or not seeing. The eyeglass prescription can change considerably. Just as a child’s body grows rapidly, so does the shape of the eye. With regular visits we are able to monitor these changes.

This is a condition of the eye unable to see under reduced illumination. Lack of Vitamin A is the most common cause of this condition in the poor countries. Some eye diseases affecting the rod shape cells in the retina also result night blindness. Congenital night blindness is rare.

This is a condition of the eye which cannot see well at long distances in low illumination, such as driving at night. It’s a myopic condition induced from complex optical factors as a result of dilatation of the pupil and reaction in the focusing mechanism of the eye. This problem can be alleviated by appropriately increased the correcting power to be used in the low illumination.

Take frequent eye breaks, look up and away from extended near or computer work, spend time outdoors, don’t hold reading material too close to your face, practice eye-focus skills as recommended by your doctor, and ensure you are wearing a current lens prescription.

Laser eye surgery is used to correct many cases of myopia (blurred distance vision) and astigmatism safely and predictably. Laser correction of hyperopia (farsightedness) is in its advanced testing stages. Results are not as predictable, nor as successful. Presbyopia, which causes the need to wear reading glasses or bifocals, cannot be corrected by laser surgery. As a result, individuals over 45 years will require reading glasses in most cases following surgery. Amblyopia (lazy eye) or other existing conditions that have caused damage to the eye or loss of vision, cannot be repaired by laser surgery.