Refractive Anomalies

Refractive Anomalies

Refractive anomalies or refractive errors are disorders that affect the way your eyes bend light .They cause certain objects to appear blurry. These disorders are caused by abnormalities in the shape of the eye. The severity of the error determines how much it will may affect your vision life without vision correction. You can have a refractive error in both eyes or one eye.

Four Main Types of Refractive Errors

Myopia or near sightedness
Difficulty seeing things that are far away . People who have myopia (also known as nearsightedness) have difficulty seeing distant objects, but can see objects that are near clearly. For example, a person who is nearsighted may not be able to make out highway signs until they are just a few feet away.

Myopia affects a significant percentage of the population. It’s an eye focus disorder that is easily corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery.

Hyperopia or Far sightedness
Difficulty seeing things up close . A gradual, age-related loss of the eyes' ability to focus actively on nearby objects. Farsightedness usually becomes noticeable in the early- to mid-40s and worsens until around the age of 65.

Symptoms include a need to hold reading material at arm’s length to make letters clearer, blurred vision at normal reading distance and eye strain after reading. In rare cases, it may cause headaches. The condition can be corrected with non-prescription or prescription glasses, contact lenses and, rarely, surgery.

Presbyopia
An a age related form of farsightedness, that sometimes happens when the lens of your eye hardens over time. Everyone gets presbyopia as they get older. A gradual, age-related loss of the eyes' ability to focus actively on nearby objects. Farsightedness usually becomes noticeable in the early- to mid-40s and worsens until around the age of 65.

Symptoms include a need to hold reading material at arm’s length to make letters clearer, blurred vision at normal reading distance and eye strain after reading. In rare cases, it may cause headaches. The condition can be corrected with non-prescription or prescription glasses, contact lenses and, rarely, surgery.

Astigmatism
Astigmatism is a common eye problem that can make your vision blurry or distorted. It happens when your cornea (the clear front layer of your eye) or lens (an inner part of your eye that helps the eye focus) has a different shape than normal.

The most common symptoms of astigmatism are:

• Blurry vision
• Needing to squint to see clearly
• Headaches
• Eye strain
• Trouble seeing at night

Treatment - the most common treatments for astigmatism are eyeglasses. the right lenses to help you see as clearly as possible. Doctors can also use surgery to treat astigmatism. The surgery changes the shape of your cornea so that it can focus light correctly.