Eye Dork - Eye Have the Answer

Nearsighted is another term for myopia. Myopia is when your eyes are focused at a distance closer than 20 feet. For mild amounts of myopia it is more difficult to identify distant images, such as road signs. For moderate amounts of myopia reading a book or focusing on the computer is easy, but images past that distance are blurry. For high amounts of myopia, images must be very close to the eye to be focused. Myopia can develop at any age. It is most common for myopia to develop between the ages of 8 to 12. Increased near work (reading and computer) is the leading cause for this trend. There has been a great deal of research put into finding ways to slow down or avoid myopia development. At this time, the only treatment proven to help is time outdoors. A good goal is one hour per day outdoors and trying to limit time spent on hand held devices. Time outdoors myopia study. With myopia, images are focused in front of the retina. To focus images on the retina a concave lens is neede

Farsighted is another term for hyperopia. This means that the uncorrected eye is focused at a distance beyond 20 feet. For small amounts of hyperopia this results in great distance vision.  As the amount of hyperopia increases, near work (computer and reading) becomes more difficult. For larger amounts of hyperopia, images have to be too far away to focus. For larger amounts of hyperopia there is no useful distance images focus at. Younger patients are able to use the ciliary muscle to focus through hyperopia to see. As the ciliary muscle flexes, it changes the shape of the lens. The change in shape allows images to be focused at closer distances. If an eye is naturally focused at 30 feet, flexing of the ciliary muscle can change the focused distance to 20 feet. If the muscle flexes harder, it can focus images at 16 inches or closer depending on the patients' age and focusing ability. For every year of life, the lens in our eye becomes larger. When the lens is larger, the cilia