Frequently Asked Questions
What is myopia?
Myopia, or near-sighted, causes blurred vision in the distance
What is hyperopia?
Hyperopia, or far-sighted, causes blurred vision at near but can affect distance vision as well.
What is astigmatism?
Astigmatism means the eye is more shaped like a football than a basketball. The oval shape causes the need for two powers to put light on the back of the eye to make a clear picture.
What is presbyopia?
Decreased near-vision causing the need for reading glasses or bifocals. Presbyopia occurs around the age of 40 years old, sometimes before, sometimes after, but will affect everyone at some point. Around this time, the lens inside your eye starts to become more rigid and the muscles cannot flex it to focus the light on the back of the eye when reading. This gets progressively worse with time.
What are cataracts?
The coloring of the lens inside of the eye. Cataracts usually begin to show around the age of 60, but environment, genetics, and general health play a roll on when they begin to occur.
What is glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a condition when the optic nerve is not receiving the blood supply it needs to stay healthy, causing permanent vision loss and blindness if not treated. This usually occurs when the eye pressure is high, but occasionally eye pressure can be normal and the patient may have glaucoma. It is a progressive disease that can be treated, but not cured. It is considered a silent, blinding disease because generally, the patient has no symptoms.
What is Macular Degeneration?
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in people over age 50 in the USA. This eye disease occurs when there are changes to the macula, a small portion of the retina that is located on the inside back layer of the eye. AMD is a loss in central vision that can occur in two forms: “dry” or atrophic and “wet” or exudative. Symptoms include but are not limited to gradual loss of the ability to see objects clearly, objects appear distorted in shape and straight lines look wavy or crooked, loss of clear color vision and/or a dark or empty area that appears in the center of the vision.