Anatomy of the Eye
Normal Vision (Emmetropia)
In the normal eye, light is focused through the cornea and lens sharply onto the retina. There the light is converted into electrical signals, which are sent to the brain through the optic nerve to enable sight.
Short-Sightedness (Myopia)
Short-sightedness occurs when the cornea is too steep or the eyeball is too long.
This causes light to be focused in the front of the retina, making it difficult to focus beyond short distances. Only close objects are in focus.
MYOPIA or Short Sightedness – Light is focused in front of the retina of a large eye, near objects are clear, distance objects are blurred.
Long-sightedness (Hyperopia)
Long-sightedness occurs when the cornea is too flat or the eyeball is too short.
Light is focused behind the retina, which makes it difficult to focus up close. In older age groups, it’s difficult to focus clearly on anything at all.
HYPEROPIA or Long Sightedness – Near and distance are both blurred although near is typically more blurred than distance.
Astigmatism
When the cornea has an oval curvature, instead of round, light is focused on multiple points away from the retina rather than on a single point.
Astigmatism can also occur with either short or long-sightedness.
ASTIGMATISM – All objects at distance and near are blurred and may have double or secondary images.
Presbyopia
As people age, the lens within the eye becomes firmer. This makes it more difficult to change the focus of the eye from distant to close objects and therefore reading glasses are required to see short distances.
Ask us about monovision and multifocal lens implants to correct your eyes of reading difficulties and multi-focal glasses.
Cataracts
A cataract is a loss off clarity of the lens in the eye. Most cataracts are related to aging. Certain medications, an outdoor lifestyle or a family history of cataracts may also be responsible for early onset cataracts. Rarely, they may also be present at birth or develop after direct eye trauma.
If you believe you may be suffering from any of the above, please contact the Perth Laser Vision Centre to ask about laser eye surgery today.