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Bloodshot eyes or Red eyes occurs when the vessels in your eye become swollen or irritated. They are usually caused by allergy, eye fatigue, over-wearing contact lenses or common eye infections such as pink eye (conjunctivitis).
Redness of the eye, also called bloodshot eyes, can signal a more serious eye condition or disease, such as uveitis or glaucoma. However, most serious eye problems happen when you have redness along with pain or changes in your vision.
The most common cause of eye redness is inflamed vessels on the surface of the eye.
Various irritants can cause vessels on the eye to become inflamed, including:
Eyestrain or coughing can cause a specific condition known as subconjunctival hemorrhage. When this occurs, a blood blotch may appear in one eye. The condition may look serious. However, if it’s not accompanied by pain, it’ll typically clear up in 7 to 10 days.
More serious causes of eye redness include infections. Infections can occur in different structures of the eye and typically produce additional symptoms such as pain, discharge, or changes in your vision.
Infections that can cause eye redness include:
Most causes of eye redness don’t warrant emergency medical attention.
If you experience eye redness, you should make an appointment to see your doctor if:
Even though most causes of eye redness aren’t severe, you should seek emergency medical help if:
If your eye redness is caused by a medical condition such as conjunctivitis or blepharitis, you may be able to treat your symptoms at home. Warm compresses on the eye can help reduce the symptoms of these conditions.
You should also make sure that you wash your hands frequently, avoid wearing makeup or contacts, and avoid touching the eye.
If your eye redness is accompanied by pain or changes in vision, you need to see your doctor for treatment.
Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms, your current health conditions, and problems that may have caused irritation to your eye. Your doctor may also examine your eye and use a saline solution to wash out any irritants in your eye.
Depending on your diagnosis, your doctor may prescribe treatment that helps to alleviate your symptoms. This would likely include antibiotics, eye drops, and home care as described above.
In some cases, where the eye is very irritated, your doctor may suggest wearing a patch to limit light exposure and help your eye heal.
Most causes of eye redness won’t result in serious complications.
If you have an infection that causes vision changes, this may affect your ability to perform basic tasks such as cooking or driving. Vision impairments in these areas can result in accidental injury.
Infections that aren’t treated may also result in permanent damage to the eye.
If eye redness doesn’t resolve in 2 days, you should call your doctor.
Most cases of eye redness can be prevented by using proper hygiene and avoiding irritants that can cause redness.
Follow these tips to prevent eye redness:
Source: healthline.com
Presbyopia is the gradual loss of your eyes’ ability to focus on nearby objects. It’s a natural, often annoying part of aging. Presbyopia usually becomes noticeable in your early to mid-40s and continues to worsen until around age 65.
You may become aware of presbyopia when you start holding books and newspapers at arm’s length to be able to read them. A basic eye exam can confirm presbyopia. You can correct the condition with eyeglasses or contact lenses. You might also consider surgery.
Presbyopia develops gradually. You may first notice these signs and symptoms after age 40:
You may notice these symptoms are worse if you are tired or are in an area with dim lighting.
See an eye doctor if blurry close-up vision is keeping you from reading, doing close-up work or enjoying other normal activities. He or she can determine whether you have presbyopia and advise you of your options.
Seek immediate medical care if you:
To form an image, your eye relies on the cornea and the lens to focus the light reflected from objects. The closer the object, the more the lens flexes.
The lens, unlike the cornea, is somewhat flexible and can change shape with the help of a circular muscle that surrounds it. When you look at something at a distance, the circular muscle relaxes. When you look at something nearby, the muscle constricts, allowing the relatively elastic lens to curve and change its focusing power.
Presbyopia is caused by a hardening of the lens of your eye, which occurs with aging. As your lens becomes less flexible, it can no longer change shape to focus on close-up images. As a result, these images appear out of focus.
Certain factors can make you more likely to develop presbyopia, including:
Presbyopia is diagnosed by a basic eye exam, which includes a refraction assessment and an eye health exam.
A refraction assessment determines if you have nearsightedness or farsightedness, astigmatism, or presbyopia. Your doctor may use various instruments and ask you to look through several lenses to test your distance and close-up vision.
Your eye doctor likely will put drops in your eyes to dilate your pupils for the eye health exam. This may make your eyes more light sensitive for a few hours after the exam. Dilation enables your doctor to more easily view the inside of your eyes.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that adults have a complete eye exam every:
You may need more-frequent exams if you have risk factors for eye disease or you need glasses or contact lenses.
The goal of treatment is to compensate for the inability of your eyes to focus on nearby objects. Treatment options include wearing corrective eyeglasses (spectacle lenses) or contact lenses, undergoing refractive surgery, or getting lens implants for presbyopia.
Eyeglasses are a simple, safe way to correct vision problems caused by presbyopia. You may be able to use over-the-counter (nonprescription) reading glasses if you had good, uncorrected vision before developing presbyopia. Ask your eye doctor if nonprescription glasses are OK for you.
Most nonprescription reading glasses range in power from +1.00 diopter (D) to +3.00 D. When selecting reading glasses:
You’ll need prescription lenses for presbyopia if over-the-counter glasses are inadequate or if you already require prescription corrective lenses for nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Your choices include:
People who don’t want to wear eyeglasses often try contact lenses to improve their vision problems caused by presbyopia. This option may not work for you if you have certain conditions related to your eyelids, tear ducts or the surfaces of your eyes such as dry eye.
Several lens types are available:
Refractive surgery changes the shape of your cornea. For presbyopia, this treatment can be used to improve close-up vision in your nondominant eye. It’s like wearing monovision contact lenses. Even after surgery, you may need to use eyeglasses for close-up work.
Talk with your doctor about the possible side effects, as this procedure is not reversible. You might want to try monovision contact lenses for a while before you commit to surgery.
Refractive surgical procedures include:
Some ophthalmologists use a procedure in which they remove the lens in each eye and replace it with a synthetic lens. This is called an intraocular lens.
Several types of lens implants are available for correcting presbyopia. Some allow your eye to see things both near and at a distance. Some change position or shape within the eye (accommodative lens). But lens implants can cause a decrease in the quality of your near vision, and you may still need reading glasses.
Possible side effects include glare and blurring. In addition, this surgery carries with it the same risks as those associated with cataract surgery, such as inflammation, infection, bleeding and glaucoma.
Some people have had success with a presbyopia treatment that involves inserting a small plastic ring with a central opening, into the cornea of one eye. The opening acts like a pinhole camera and allows in focused light so that you can see close objects.
If you don’t like the results of your corneal inlay procedure, your eye surgeon can remove the rings, leaving you free to consider other treatment options.
You can’t prevent presbyopia. You can help protect your eyes and your vision by following these tips:
If you’re having difficulty with your vision, start by seeing an eye specialist (optometrist or ophthalmologist). To make the most of your time with your doctor, it’s a good idea to prepare for your appointment. Here’s some information to help you prepare.
Preparing a list of questions can help you make the most of your time with your doctor. List your questions from most important to least important. For presbyopia, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
In addition to the questions that you’ve prepared, don’t hesitate to ask additional questions that may occur to you during your appointment.
Your doctor is likely to ask you a number of questions, including some that relate to your general health, your medical history, your eye health history, your family medical history and your history of eye problems. Your doctor may ask:
Make sure you have adequate lighting. If you don’t currently wear prescription eyeglasses, try a pair of over-the-counter (nonprescription) reading glasses.
Blindness is the inability to see anything, including light. There are more than 100 thousand cases per year in Nigeria.
If you’re partially blind, you have limited vision. For example, you may have blurry vision or the inability to distinguish the shapes of objects.
Complete blindness means you can’t see at all.
Legal blindness refers to a vision that’s highly compromised. What a person with a regular vision can see from 200 feet away, a legally blind person can see from only 20 feet away.
Seek medical attention right away if you suddenly lose the ability to see. Have someone bring you to the emergency room for treatment. Don’t wait for your vision to return.
Depending on the cause of your blindness, immediate treatment may increase your chances of restoring your vision. Treatment may involve surgery or medication.
Learn more about Short Sightedness and Long Sightedness
If you’re completely blind, you see nothing.
The following eye diseases and conditions can cause blindness:
A thorough eye exam by an optometrist will help determine the cause of your blindness or partial loss of vision.
They’ll examine the general health of your eyes using a slit lamp. It’s a low-power microscope paired with a high-intensity light.
A pediatrician will screen your baby for eye problems shortly after birth. At 6 months of age, have an eye doctor or pediatrician check your child again for visual acuity, focus, and eye alignment.
The doctor will look at your baby’s eye structures and see whether they can follow a light or colorful object with their eyes.
Your child should be able to pay attention to visual stimuli by 6 to 8 weeks of age. If your child doesn’t react to light shining in their eyes or focus on colorful objects by 2 to 3 months of age, have their eyes examined right away.
Have your child’s eyes examined if you notice crossed eyes or any other symptoms of impaired vision.
In some cases of vision impairment, one or more of the following may help restore vision:
If you experience partial blindness that can’t be corrected, your doctor will provide guidance on how to function with limited vision. For example, you can use a magnifying glass to read, increase the text size on your computer, and use audio clocks and audiobooks.
Complete blindness requires approaching life in a new way and learning new skills. For example, you may need to learn how to:
You can also consider getting some adaptive products, like a specialized smartphone, color identifier, and accessible cookware. There’s even adaptive sporting equipment, like sensory soccer balls.
To help prevent vision loss, the American Optometric Association recommends you have your child’s eyes examined:
Surgery can effectively treat cataracts. They don’t necessarily result in blindness. Early diagnosis and treatment are also important in cases of glaucoma and macular degeneration to help slow down or stop vision loss.
If you notice symptoms of vision loss between routine visits, make an appointment with their eye doctor immediately.
In Presbyopia, a person’s eye progressively diminishes in its ability to focus on near objects with age. The exact mechanism that causes this “loss” in focusing ability is not completely proven. However, most researchers believe that the crystalline lens inside the eye loses its flexibility with age as an early cataract begins to form.
Presbyopia occurs as a patient begins to enter their late 30s or early 40s. It is characterized by an inability to use the muscles inside the eye to move the image from behind the retina onto the retina. This is often corrected with lenses that have a bifocal in them.
This loss in flexibility directly causes a loss in a person’s ability to focus. Similar to grey hair, presbyopia is a symptom that everyone experiences as they age.
The first symptoms most people notice are difficulty reading the fine print, particularly in low light conditions, eyestrain when reading for long periods, blur at near or momentarily blurred vision when transitioning between viewing distances. Many extreme presbyopes complain that their arms have become “too short” to hold reading material at a comfortable distance.
Presbyopia symptoms, like other focus defects, become much less noticeable in bright sunlight due to the action of the iris closing to a smaller diameter. This is a similar effect that occurs with a camera. A small pupil increases the depth of field for the observer and offers some help for the observer.
A delayed onset of seeking correction for presbyopia has been found among those with certain professions. For instance, homemakers and farmers work in broad lighting conditions and are not stuck on a computer all day, so they tend to seek out help a few years later than engineers and computer programmers who are looking at small print much more frequently.
Treatment for presbyopia has advanced significantly in recent years with many options now available to our patients. Some of the following options you may find helpful:
1. Reading Glasses – Over the counter reading glasses are sold to may people in drug stores and in dollar stores. They are an effective form of treatment for people who see well in the distance. Of course, these do not work for nearsighted individuals and only work well for far-sighted individuals who have small degrees of farsightedness.
2. Contact Lenses – Have you ever seen the president of the United States wearing glasses? The reason why you never see this occurring is that every president of the United States has monovision contact lenses and or bifocal contact lenses. This is a very effective form of treatment that can be tried during a contact lens examination.
3. Bifocal Glasses – This works very well for most people. The top portion of the glasses are for seeing in the distance and the bottom portion of the lenses are for seeing up close. The two main types of bifocal glasses are glasses with and without a line. A progressive addition lens does not have a line. Lots of people prefer the “no line” or progressive lens because it is cosmetically pleasing. However, we prefer the lined bifocal because it is easier for a patient to adapt too. During the routine eye examination, a prescription is always given to the patient, and bifocal glasses are an excellent option for glasses.
Cataracts are hard to see through because they cause clouding of the lens within the eye. Cataracts most often affect both eyes and cause glare sensitivity and blurred vision.
A cataract is a normal part of ageing. As we age, the normally clear crystalline lens within our eye can become yellow or opaque. Clinically significant cataracts occur when the patient is bothered by glare or blurred vision.
Most cataracts are caused by age and progress slowly. The following risk factors can increase the chance or progression of cataract:
1. Accumulated exposure to ultraviolet radiation
2. Trauma
3. Some diseases of the eye
4. Some medications
5. Systemic diseases such as diabetes
6. Poor nutrition
In the early stages, your optometrist will monitor your cataract(s). Often your vision can be improved by making a change in your eyeglass prescription. However, if the cataract progresses and causes your vision to become too blurry a referral to an Ophthalmologist for cataract surgery will be arranged by your Optometrist. To Slow down the formation of cataracts we recommend protection from the sun and a balanced diet.
Regular eye examinations by the optometrist to check the health of your eyes
Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve, which causes loss of peripheral vision initially, and can lead to tunnel vision and then blindness.
In most types of glaucoma, the nerve damage occurs slowly and creates blind spots in peripheral vision, but as the disease progresses, these blind spots enlarge and grow together. It is common for a person not to notice they are afflicted until the later stages of the disease when the central vision becomes affected. At this point, severe and irreversible vision loss has occurred.
In a less common form of glaucoma, called acute angle-closure glaucoma, patients may experience a sudden onset of a red, painful eye with blurred, steamy vision and seeing haloes or rainbows around lights. This is a Medical Emergency and requires immediate urgent treatment to lower the eye pressure and prevent blindness.
1. Age (More Common after 50)
2. Diabetes
3. Increased Pressure in the eye
4. High Hyperopia ( for Acute Glaucoma)
5. Myopia
6. Some Medications
7. Family History
8. Trauma to the Eye
9. Infections and Inflammation
Most cases of glaucoma, if detected early, can be successfully controlled, provided the patient is compliant with using their medication and returning for regular monitoring and follow-up care.
1. Eye Drops Used Daily to lower the Pressure in the Eye
2. Laser Surgery
3. Oral Medicine (for acute cases of Glaucoma)
4. Ocular Microsurgery
NOTE: Glaucoma patients require to be monitored life-long
The eye is one of the most complicated organs in the body, with so many different parts working together to take the patterns of light bouncing off objects around us and converting them into the continuous stream of images that gets processed by our brains. So let’s take a closer look at how these amazing organs work!
Here are several parts of the eye that assist in the process of getting images to the brain.
All the parts of the eye create signals that are sent through the optic nerve to the occipital lobe. Located in the lower back section of the brain, the occipital lobe continuously processes visual information coming from the optic nerve. Since we see many colors, images, lights, people, etc. at all times during the day, our brains have to work at incredible speeds so that we can react quickly to what we see.
In order for all the parts of the eye to function well enough to send images to the occipital lobe, we still need a few more pieces.
When all these different parts are working together, we are able to see clearly, but if any one of them stops working, vision problems can result. If you ever feel like something may be wrong with your vision, or if you’re due for your regular eye exam, schedule an appointment with us and they’ll make sure everything’s working!
There are many signs that you may need glasses—some more obvious than others. If you are experiencing any of these, schedule an appointment with an eyecare professional who can give you a comprehensive eye exam. Even if you are not experiencing any symptoms, scheduling a regular check-in with your eyecare professional is part of a good health care routine.
LOOK FOR THESE 7 SIGNS
We use our eyes every waking moment of our lives yet we don’t give them as much care. More than ever, as screen sizes get smaller, our eyes tend to get fatigue.
Nevertheless, there are many things that you can do to help better care for your eyes, especially as you age.
Sadly, many people are missing out on the critical eye exams they need in order to ensure their eyes remain healthy.
If it has been over a year or two since your last eye exam, be sure to make an appointment with our office immediately so we can help get your eyesight back on the healthy track.
Be sure your daily diet consists of fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, leafy vegetables, blueberries, tomatoes, etc. These foods help provide antioxidants that can help in reducing the risk of age-related macular degeneration.
Take vitamin A rich meals and avoid sugary foods as they are bad for the eyes. The more sugar you eat, the worse your eyesight will become.
Eye exercises such as a simple massage(applying heat to your eyes by rubbing your palms together)can help you maintain optimal vision and may also keep those annoying eye floaters at bay.
Perform these exercises any time your eyes feel fatigued and make sure that your hands are clean.
Try resting your eyes for at least ten minutes for every fifty minutes you spend in front of a computer screen, television set, or reading a book. Take a quick nap if necessary as getting enough sleep will help to fully rest, repair, and recover your vision health.
You might need corrective lenses to improve your vision. Eyeglasses are the most accessible and safest way to correct problems caused by vision impairment, contact lenses are a popular choice as well.
If you work outside or have to drive long distances make sure to buy polarizing sunglasses to protect your eyes again UV light and glare. This will help prevent squinting.
Keep the room you are in softly lit. Fluorescent lighting is considered bad for eyes since they give off the wrong light frequencies of colour and emit radiation that makes you drowsy all day long.
Avoid watching television or working on the computer in the dark, and when working at a desk, use a shaded light source to protect your eyes from direct light.
Make sure your room or office is well moisturized as dry eye is caused by a lack of lubrication and moisture on the surface of your eye. Stay clear of the window area or air vents as they are areas of increased air flow and dust particles.
Computers are a major source of eye strain for most people. While you are on the computer practice the 20-20-20 rule: Every twenty minutes look at something twenty feet away for at least twenty seconds.
Reduce glare on the screen to avoid straining your eyes, you can also enlarge the font size, contrast, and brightness for easier reading and browsing.
If your eyes often get dry, blurry or tired, then you should increase your water intake. And when you do, don’t just wash your face, fill your mouth with water and then splash water with eyes wide open. This will leave you feeling refreshed too.
We can’t correct our vision without professional help, and there’s no one quick fix for eyesight problems. But with some trained habits such as taking healthy meals and having regular eye exams, you can help your eyesight.
And as always, consult your eye doctor.