Retinal detachment is a very serious retinal disorder that can cause blindness if it’s not treated. Your retina is one of the most essential parts of your eye. It’s made of neurons that catch light and translate into nerve impulses that travel to your brain. So, what makes retinal detachment so alarming is that the retina actually loosens and separates from the tissue around it. If this problem isn’t treated in time, it easily can lead to blindness.

There are ways to spot this condition, though. If you are someone who is very nearsighted, you should be aware of your risk of developing retinal detachment. Also, retinal detachment can be hereditary, so if this has occurred to someone in your family you could be at risk. Retinal detachments have also been associated with eye injuries and cataracts. If you’re suffering from one of these things, you may benefit from having a discussion with your eye care professional about the possible risk of retinal detachment.

The worrisome aspect about retinal detachments is that they don’t cause any pain despite the fact they can be so devastating to your eye health. There are symptoms you can spot, though, one of them being flashes of light. If you start to notice bright sensations of light in your vision, speak to your doctor immediately. Another sign could be “floaters,” a colloquial term for specks or threads that enter your vision. You should also be aware of a dimming in your peripheral vision, as this is another indicator of a possible retinal detachment forming.

Always keep these symptoms in mind because early detection is the key to successfully treating a retinal detachment. Retinal detachment can even be prevented, in some cases. The most important thing is to see your eye doctor at least once a year. When you get an eye exam, the doctor is more likely to detect concerning changes in your eye that you haven’t even noticed yet.

Some people may have to go to their doctor more often, especially if they suffer from other health problems like diabetes or hypertension, which have been known to associate with various eye disorders, including retinal detachments. If you are nearsighted, you should visit your eye doctor annually to make sure your eyes are healthy and not developing a retinal detachment, as nearsighted people have a much higher risk of getting it, oftentimes quite suddenly.

It’s also important to understand the difference between a retinal tear and retinal detachment, as they are not one in the same. A retinal tear is usually preliminary to a retinal detachment, and it can cause retinal detachment when it allows fluid in the eye to enter it. The fluid then seeps in and floods behind the retina, loosening and removing it from the connective tissue, causing a retinal detachment.

If you think you have a retinal tear or detachment, your doctor will give you an exam, including dilating the pupils, so as to find out if this is indeed the case. If you actually do have a retinal detachment, there are numerous ways to treat it, fortunately.

Treating Retinal Detachment

It’s incredibly important to catch a retinal tear before it develops into far worse retinal damage because then it can be treated with a simple procedure, such as laser intervention or cryopexy freezing, right in your doctor’s office.

If the tear isn’t too large and can be closed easily, your eye care provider might opt for a procedure called pneumatic retinopexy, where a small gaseous bubble is injected into the eye, in the fluid-like area between the cornea and the retina. This bubble actually rises up naturally and presses against the retina, closing up the tear. And then a simple laser or cryopexy method is used to seal up the tear, finally.

Some instances call for a scleral buckle to be attached to the eye’s sclera, which is the white part of your eye that surrounds the cornea. It’s a silicon band, transparent so it can’t be seen and it’s attached and left on the eye to push the sclera back up against the retina in order to heal the tear. Practitioners may follow up with a laser procedure to seal the tear, then.

For larger, more dangerous tears, doctors use a method called vitrectomy. The doctor will actually extract the fluid in between the cornea and the retina and replace it with a saline solution to treat the tear.

So there are many ways to treat retinal tears and detachments, but it’s essential to remember that detecting this problem before it worsens is integral to successfully treating it. Whether or not you’re nearsighted, have cataracts, diabetes, hypertension, hereditary association or any other factor that may put you at risk of developing a retinal detachment, you should always see your eye care professional regularly. The symptoms of retinal detachments aren’t necessarily noticeable, so don’t be hesitant to seek consultation and examination from your eye care professional.

The retina is an amazing part of the eye. This thin film of tissue is made of neurons of all different types, like rods, cones and a third, very special neuron type called the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell. All of these cells are connected through synapses, and as light enters our eye through the cornea and lens, the retina picks up the light and translates it into triggered nerve impulses that travel from our optic nerve into our brain, giving us the sense of sight.

It’s an astounding process. Unfortunately, the retina becomes prone to various disorders, especially as someone grows older. One of the most common of these disorders is called macular degeneration.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-Related Macular Degeneration, sometimes abbreviated as AMD, is the leading cause of severe vision problems in people over the age of 60, and while it can’t completely blind someone, it can still destroy central vision, altogether. People who smoke, have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, suffer from obesity, have light skin or light eye color or are female can be at a greater risk of developing macular degeneration.

Furthermore, the condition may be linked to hereditary causes, so if someone in your family has had this condition, you may want to speak with your doctor and find out how at risk you are of getting it. If you do have AMD, you must monitor your vision often, as the condition, in all its forms, can potentially worsen and destroy your central vision, ultimately.

The Causes

When AMD occurs, a specific, small and central part of the retina, called the macular, deteriorates, and this could happen for a few reasons. Around 90 percent of the time it’s because yellow deposits, referred to as drusen, accumulate on the retina. The medical field refers to this as “dry” AMD.

People can have drusen on their retina and not see any difference, but if they accumulate even more, they’ll begin to notice their vision is more distorted or dimmed, especially when they try to read. At its worst, the macula may become thinned, and this leads to atrophy, or tissue death. Blind spots appear in the vision and people can lose their central vision, altogether.

The other 10 percent of AMD is of the “wet” form, and this occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow from underneath the macula. This can be very serious, as the blood vessels can cause blood and fluids to leak all over the retina. People will have serious vision issues, like straight lines becoming wavy and the formation of blind spots, and then the vessels eventually scar, causing loss of central vision.

Treating Macular Degeneration

AMD is a scary disorder because it’s common, dangerous and doctors have yet to find a cure for it. Most people have dry AMD, so their vision deteriorates very slowly and they’ll never go blind from it, but it can still create problems in their daily lives.

Because of this, low-vision clinics can offer great assistance. There are also many tools one can use so they can still read, like bright reading lamps, magnifying glasses and large-print books. There’s even software available that can read emails and browse the internet for you so you don’t have to rely on your eyesight.

According to research, diet and nutrition could be important factors to maintaining eye health. That means getting plenty of Vitamins A, C and E in your meals, and you can find these nutrients in fruits and vegetables, like oranges, kiwis, carrots, tomatoes and green leafy vegetables. There’s also evidence that supplements of these nutrients could help, as well.

For people with wet form AMD, there are treatment options. The aim is stop those blood vessels from growing, which can be done with something called anti-VEGF medication. This treatment tries to block the chemical that facilitates more blood vessels to grow in the retina. Doctors administer the drug by injecting it into the eye once it has been properly anaesthetized, or numbed of any pain. The procedure has very little discomfort, and it’s been show to work effectively. Some people have even reported their vision improving from it. There are various types of anti-VEGF medications, like ranibizumab, aflibercept and pegaptanib, so if you do suffer from dry form macular degeneration, you should speak with your doctor about possibly using an anti-VEGF treatment.

There are also certain laser surgeries that can be done to try and help people with wet form macular degeneration. These procedures are designed to get rid of the blood vessels they have. For instance, one type of surgery, photodynamic therapy (PDT), uses a light-sensitive medicine called verteporfin that’s intravenously injected and then attaches to the abnormal blood vessels. With a laser light, the verteporfin is catalyzed and activates, destroying the abnormal blood vessels and protecting the macula tissue from further harm. While this surgery is effective, it’s only appropriate for certain cases of wet form macular degeneration, around a fifth of them, in fact. Laser photocoagulation is another kind of laser surgery. Only one in seven cases can do this surgery, though, because the abnormal blood vessels can’t be near the fovea or the procedure could cause permanent vision loss.

Macular degeneration is a serious condition and its frequency among older people is very significant. Even today, scientists are still looking for better treatments. If you start having vision problems, speak to your doctor. It’s best to be aware if you have this condition so that you can move forward and take care of your eye health.

Eye strain—and those uncomfortable symptoms like achy, blurry eyes and painful headaches—tend to occur because of people’s heavy reliance on looking at screens. Most doctors would recommend that you reduce your time spent on your computer or smartphone to keep eye strain at bay. However, if you work in an office setting where you spend the better part of seven or eight hours in front of a computer, you can’t really do much beyond take occasional breaks.

You can indeed cut back on eye strain even if you work in front of a computer all day. By taking a few proactive steps, you can be productive at work and drive home safely without fatigued eyes at the end of the day. Before you take any steps though, make sure that you visit with your eye doctor and see what they would recommend. Tell them exactly how many hours that you spend looking at your work computer and receive an examination so you can make sure that your eye health is optimal.

If you already wear glasses, your eye doctor may suggest a pair of computer glasses. These, according to All About Vision, are specialized frames that sit farther from your eyes in order to prevent eye strain symptoms from computer usage. However, they do not replace corrective lenses or contacts, but rather are worn in addition to these.

When you get into work the next day, change various settings on your computer’s display. Look into the color temperature, which All About Vision notes is the amount of light produced by the colors on your computer screen. Adjust this for less blue, which can cause eye pain. Make sure that all text displays at a size that isn’t too small so that you can read it easily. Also make sure that text displays as black on white with no other variation, as this could irritate your eyes. You may also want to adjust the brightness on your computer. A too-bright computer screen can be too much on your eyes, inducing eye strain symptoms. However, you could also struggle to read on a darker screen, also harming your eyes. Find a balance between the two.

Don’t stop there though. If you use word processing programs or other text-based programs, you can adjust the size of the text with a magnifying glass icon. You can possibly do this with an email client as well. You can also increase the size of text on Internet browsers if you’re allowed to use the Internet at work.

You may also want to consider asking your IT professional, boss, or manager about changing out your computer monitor entirely. All About Vision notes that cathode ray tube screens are more likely to cause eye strain than LCD screens. If you have an older computer, it may also not work as efficiently as a newer model would, which is another great reason to convince a higher-up to invest in new machines for the office. Try to get screens as big as possible.

You also want to change the amount of lighting in your office, cubicle, or other workspace. With a lot of sunlight or bright light in the room, glare becomes an issue, and this also could cause eye strain. If you have windows with blinds or curtains, take advantage of these. Adjust your computer monitor if possible so that it doesn’t reflect this disruptive glare. All About Vision also notes that anti-glare solution for computer screens can help in the event that you can’t physically move the location of your monitor.

Once you make changes to your computer monitor and the workspace around you, you can also make personal changes that will help cut back on eye strain. For example, doing eye exercises can keep your vision sharp throughout the day. All About Vision recommends that you stop what you’re doing on a 20 minute basis and take 20 seconds to focus your eyes elsewhere besides your computer screen. Although this doesn’t seem like exercise, if you do this throughout the day, you’ll notice an improvement in how tired your eyes feel at the end of the day.

Lastly, nothing replaces breaks. Whenever you can, take a few minutes or more and take a break from the screen. If you do this in conjunction with the other suggestions above, you’ll notice that eye strain will become a lesser if not nonexistent issue for you throughout the day

You’ve probably heard of allergic conjunctivitis before, and maybe you’ve even had it. In those cases though, your doctor may have called it by its more common term: pink eye. Both names describe parts of the condition; conjunctivitis refers to your eye’s conjunctiva, which is your eyelid’s tissue. Pink eye refers to the color that your eyes turn once the conjunctiva becomes irritated from allergic conditions.

If you’ve never experienced allergies before, it’s important to know that pink eye can be caused by a number of other situations and factors, according to WebMD. For example, too much chlorine in a pool, exposure to bacteria, shampoo in the eyes, smoke of any kind in the eyes, and debris and dirt in the eyes can also cause allergic reactions. However, in the instance of allergic conjunctivitis, you tend to experience different symptoms than if the irritation is caused by those factors above. Those symptoms include blurry or fuzzy vision, excessive tear production, swollen conjunctiva or eyelids, and of course that red/pink color. One of your eyes may be worse than the other, but generally both of your eyes will experience these symptoms when you have a reaction.

Generally, a number of irritants will cause pink eye in those that have allergic conjunctivitis. Certain kinds of makeup, certain brands of eye drops, colognes and perfumes, dust mites, medications meant for the skin, and a type of flavoring called Balsam of Peru can all be culprits. If you normally experience an allergic reaction to animals or pollen, this could also cause your eyes to become irritated.

If you notice that you have an allergic reaction similar to pink eye, then you should make an appointment with your optometrist or ophthalmologist, WebMD suggests. Your regular doctor can also suffice. These various types of doctors can all review your symptoms and diagnose you with allergic conjunctivitis.

Once you’re diagnosed, you can discuss treatment options with your doctor. Pink eye can actually be treated in a number of ways. For some people, staying away from the allergens that cause a reaction as listed above can actually lead to the disappearance of symptoms. For others, an over-the-counter antihistamine used to treat other types of allergies can put a dent in your uncomfortable symptoms.

In other cases, you may need certain types of medication to reduce your allergic conjunctivitis. Ocular antihistamines are those that you apply in the eye to directly reduce itchiness, swelling, and irritation to your eyes. Ocular mast cell stabilizers have a similar function to antihistamines. Ocular decongestants will clear up that red/pinkish color so reminiscent of pink eye. However, WebMD does caution that while you can use oral antihistamines for as long as necessary, you shouldn’t use ocular decongestants for nearly as long.

In case the ocular antihistamines, ocular mast cell stabilizers or ocular decongestants aren’t really helping to treat your pink eye, ocular steroids can. These are stronger than the other medications and could harm the eyes and therefore you cannot take them alone. Instead, your doctor will administer them for a limited amount of time. According to WebMD, you could possibly develop cataracts later in life after using ocular steroids, which is why these are used as a last resort only.

Another last resort option involves orally receiving the above medications as well as steroids to treat pink eye. However, such a strong treatment only occurs very rarely in the case of extremely bad allergies.

If you don’t want to take medications, you also have another treatment option. You can ask your doctor about immunotherapy. While immunotherapy is available as a pill that you can take, most of the time a doctor will administer shots instead. These shots eventually help you develop an immunization to the allergens that cause your pink eye, just as the name suggests. In the shots or the pills is a portion of your allergen so that your body can adjust to it. WebMD notes that these shots persist at least weekly for a few months at first. Eventually, you can reduce the frequency of how often you visit your doctor, going every couple of weeks. Treatments can last up to three years in some cases and five in more severe cases.

Allergic conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, causes irritation and swelling in the eye as well as that distinct pink color. Allergens like perfume and pet dander can cause pink eye. When you make an appointment with your doctor, you can receive a number of treatments like oral eye drops or even immunization shots or pills to eventually treat your irritation.

The Internet has revolutionized shopping and made it far easier than ever before to purchase what you need, whether it’s groceries, clothes, shoes, electronics equipment or anything in between. However, with some items, such as glasses, you may think that you have to go to an eye doctor’s office in person in order to purchase new specs. Actually, you can indeed purchase glasses online and sometimes save money while you do so. However, before you place an order today, keep some factors in mind.

First of all, you have to make sure that any glasses that you buy online match the current prescription lenses that you have. If you go for a different type of lens, you may have issues with seeing when you wear these new glasses. Perhaps they make everything fuzzy or too sharp. While you always need a few days to adjust to a new pair of glasses, they should not cause prolonged feelings of dizziness or give you headaches. It can also be a hassle to return a pair of glasses that your order online.

Next, you want to make sure that the frames will fit your face correctly. This is difficult to do without actually trying the glasses on personally. Glasses frames or arms that are oversized will mean that you’re constantly adjusting the glasses on your face, while those that are too tiny will cause discomfort against your ears and your nose. Before ordering a pair of glasses online, try to measure your current specs and look for a pair with similar measurements. If they’re not to the exact specifications once you receive the glasses, you may have to return them.

Also, you want to make sure that the glasses match your own personal style. Again, this is quite a difficult task to accomplish without physical pairs of glasses in front of you to try on. You may find that a style of glasses that you never thought would look good on you actually fit your face perfectly while the pair that you had your eye on don’t look as flattering.

In order to get a preview of what you may look like in your new glasses, some retailers allow you to virtually try on glasses through a picture of yourself that you post to the retailer’s website and pictures of the glasses layered on top. However, this only works so well, and the picture only lets you see yourself head on and not from the sides. This may be a good enough start though rather than imagining what you’d look like in certain styles.

It’s also important to know that prescriptions can and do expire eventually. According to Eye Care Fun, an eyeglasses resource, your prescription for a pair of glasses lasts no longer than two years. At that point, you need to book an appointment with your eye doctors’ office whether you plan to order your glasses online or not. Only your eye doctor can offer you a new glasses prescription. If you stick with your current prescription, you’ll find that when you order a pair of glasses online that your vision doesn’t change for the worse or better and instead remains the same. Even if you return that pair and order glasses from an entirely different website, the same will happen unless you have a more updated prescription.

The older you get, specifically 40 years or older, the more often that you will have to visit your eye doctor. You may not be able to go two years without a visit as you become more susceptible to certain conditions and eye disorders. You should keep this in mind when ordering glasses online as well.

If you don’t have a lot of time to get to your eye doctors’ office, ordering your glasses online is a viable option. You can save time and in some cases even money. However, you do have to watch out for a few different factors before ordering. Make sure that the glasses website lets you input your prescription lens information. Check the measurements of the glasses you plan to buy and compare these against the measurements of your current glasses. If the retailer allows it, virtually try on glasses before making a style choice. Once your order arrives, make sure that it’s to the specifications of the order or else you will have to return them.