Eye Care – Eyecare 247

What is Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)?

What is Amblyopia?

Amblyopia, also called lazy eye, is an eye condition that arises due to abnormal development of the vision from a young age. It happens when the brain only learns to see blurred images on the weaker eye causing it to only process inputs from the stronger eye. Consequently, the nerve pathways between the brain and the weaker eye are not properly stimulated, resulting in deterioration of vision that can no longer get corrected with glasses. In some cases, both eyes may be amblyopic. It happens when both eyes are deprived of clear vision for a significant period, the brain no longer “recognizes” what clear vision is.

Amblyopia starts in childhood (<3 years old to 15 years old), when detected early and promptly treated, permanently reduced vision is avoidable. However, if left untreated, amblyopia can cause severe visual impairment in the affected eye, leading to blindness.

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Common symptoms of Amblyopia

Problems with depth perception (Have trouble gauging distance between objects)
Squinting or shutting one eye when focusing
Abnormal head posture/ tilt
Bumping into things on one side often

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What eye conditions may lead to amblyopia?

Refractive errors (Long-sightedness, Short-sightedness, and Astigmatism) When the brain gets a blurry image on one eye and a clear image on the other eye, it starts to ignore the blurry one. It resulted in a halt in the visual development of the poorer eye.
Strabismus. When the eyes do not line up (one eye turns in/ out), it is hard to fuse images from both eyes into a single image, causing double vision. To avoid seeing double, the brain will shut off the image from the misaligned eye.
Cataracts. A cloudy lens inside the eye causes blurry vision, leading the brain to favor the better eye.
Ptosis. A droopy eyelid can block your vision. It can lead to the deprivation of clear vision and halt visual development in both eyes.

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Why is it important to detect Amblyopia early?

Amblyopia is a preventable cause of Pediatric Low Vision, it is also treatable when detected early with the help of patching or prescription of glasses. When left untreated, their vision will be blurry even with the aid of spectacle, they might even develop strabismus. By doing a regular eye check with your optometrist, they can make sure your child sees clearly in each eye and assess the risk of the possibility of the development of Amblyopia.

Concern about your child’s eye health? Call us at 6533 0095 to book an appointment now! To find out more about our services, do visit our website at http://www.eyecare247.co/

Eye Care, Surgeries

What is Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?

Common Age-related Diseases – AMD

What is Age-related Macular Degeneration?

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a common eye disease that results in blurry, distorted or loss of central vision in one or both eyes due to the deterioration of the Macula. The macula is the part of the retina responsible for clear central vision.

Types of Age-related Macular Degeneration?

Age-related Macular Degeneration is common among people over 50 year old, and they exist in two forms: Dry AMD and Wet AMD. Approximately 90% of AMD patients have the dry form, which is less severe.

Dry AMD (also known as non-exudative AMD) happens due to accumulation of protein deposits in the macula causing the retinal cells above to lose their function. Most patients with dry AMD will not notice any symptoms at the early stage as the progression is very gradual and takes months to years before noticing the changes in their vision, thus regular eye check is important.

As AMD progresses over time, your vision may worsen and affect your ability to do things such as read, drive and recognize faces. 10-15% of patients with dry AMD progress to Wet AMD.

Wet AMD (also called exudative AMD) is a more sight-threatening eye condition and accounts for ~10% of AMD cases.

Wet AMD was caused by abnormal blood vessels in the retina. These blood vessels are leaky and will cause leakage of fluids or blood into the back of the eye.

Patients with wet AMD will experience more significant vision loss as compared to those diagnosed with dry AMD. Unlike Dry AMD, Wet AMD usually happens suddenly and worsen quickly, symptoms could go from blurry vision to central vision loss in a couple of days.

Risk Factors of AMD

Here are some factors that may increase your risk of getting macular degeneration:

Age – People of 50 Years old and above
Race – Caucasians are more likely to get AMD compare to other races
Smoking – People who smokes are two times more likely to have AMD compared to non-smokers
Family History – If your parents/ siblings have AMD, you are likely to have it too

Symptoms of AMD

Distorted vision, lines appears wavy instead of straight
Hazy vision
Colors appeared less vibrant
Deteriorated vision in one or both eyes
Well-define blurry zone in your central vision
Sudden onset and rapid worsening of symptoms mentioned above

You may still have early-stage Age-related Macular Degeneration despite not experiencing any of the above symptoms, a comprehensive eye examination with an optometrist or ophthalmologist is necessary to check if you have this condition.

Call us at 6533 0095 to book an appointment now! To find out more about our services, do visit our website at http://www.eyecare247.co/

Eye Care, Surgeries, Vision

What is a cataract?

Common Age-related Diseases – Cataract

What is a cataract?

A cataract is the clouding of the transparent lens in our eyes. The lens in our eyes is made of mostly water and protein, and its function is to help focus light on the retina, allowing us to see. However, as we age, some of these proteins may clump up resulting in the clouding of the lens, forming a cataract. As time goes by, the cataract gets denser resulting in visual disturbance which eventually leads to blindness if no intervention was done.

How do I know if I have Cataract?

A common misconception of Cataract is that many of us think that we only have cataracts when our eye turns whitish on the inside, however, more often than not Cataracts are not obvious to the naked eye and require eye checks done by an optometrist or ophthalmologist to pick them up. If you are over 60 years old, you probably already have them. In fact, you can get age-related cataracts as early as 40 years old.

Apart from the misconception mentioned above, one main reason why people do not notice it when they have Cataracts is that Cataracts typically form gradually, the build-up of cataracts is so slow that most people do not realize that their vision deteriorates until it starts to affect their daily lifestyle.

Some symptoms of cataracts include:

Blurry or cloudy vision
Poor vision in low lighting conditions
The colours appear to be less vibrant
Increased sensitivity to glare
Double vision in the “ cataract” eye
Problems with near work, e.g Reading
Requires more frequent change in prescription.

How can I prevent myself from getting Cataracts?

Similar to Presbyopia (Lao Hua), having Cataracts are inevitable, but some tips to slow down the progression of Cataracts are:

protect your eyes from Ultraviolet B rays by wearing sunglasses outdoors
eat fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidants
keep diabetes and other medical conditions in check

Want to know if you have cataracts or any other age-related eye diseases? Call us at 6533 0095 to book an appointment now! To find out more about our services, do visit our website at http://www.eyecare247.co/

Eye Care, Vision

Vision Terminologies in Mandarin 视觉术语

眼屈光不正（Refractive error），是指因眼球形狀而让光无法成功聚焦在视网膜上的问题。常见的典型眼屈光不正有近视、远视、散光和老花眼等。

近視（Near-sightedness, myopia, short-sightedness) ，近视是因為眼球长度過长，指眼睛视觉成像未能聚焦於视网膜上，而是聚焦於视网膜之前的情形。患者在目视远物会模糊，而视近物时相对清楚。严重的近视会增加视网膜剝離、白內障及青光眼的风险。

远视（Hypermetropia, Hyperopia）远视是因為眼球長度過短，是指平行光线经过眼的屈光介质在视网膜后聚焦的不正常屈光状态。这种眼的光学焦点在视网膜之后，因而在视网膜上所形成的像是模糊不清的，为了看清远处物体，要利用调节力量把视网膜后面的焦点移到视网膜上，故远视眼经常处在调节状态，易发生眼疲劳。

散光（Astigmatism），是眼睛的一种屈光不正常表现，与角膜的弧度有关。平行光线进入眼内后，由于眼球在不同子午线上屈光力不等，不能聚集于一点(焦点)，也就不能形成清晰的物像，这种情况称为散光。

老花（Presbyopia），是人的眼睛老化的自然過程，晶状体逐渐硬化，再加上睫状肌力量的减弱，失去调节屈光度的能力。當人眼看近物時，眼球內投射過多光线於水晶体而非视网膜，导致不能对近物对焦的视力问题，患者在看近物時视物变得模糊。老花的症狀為太小字体有阅读困难、必須将读物拉远。

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Category Archives: Eye Care

What is Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)?

What is Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?

What is a cataract?

What is a cataract?

How do I know if I have Cataract?

Vision Terminologies in Mandarin 视觉术语