Today’s situation causes concerns to ophthalmologists who have even delivered the term quarantine myopia to define the rapid progress of myopia during a pandemic while people are spending a lot of time at home engaging in short distance activities. Now there are nearly 2,6 billion people globally who suffer from myopia and at least 1 billion of whom these disorders can be corrected. It is predicted that by 2030 the first number will rise to almost 3,5 billion.
Ringing alarm bells
Vaida Švedienė, an ophthalmologist-microsurgeon at the Lirema Eye Clinic, agrees with the forecast. According to the doctor, at least once in a lifetime, everyone has faced one or another vision problem, especially recently, when daily activities – work, sports, and entertainment have moved to the screens. Some visual impairments can have serious lifelong consequences, but many can be corrected or completely restored through timely action.
“It is important to hurry that your vision would not regress. Eyeglasses are a fairly popular and neutral vision correction method but can cause a lot of discomfort spending the free time actively or changing weather conditions. Prolonged and improper wearing of contact lenses can damage the cornea and cause infection. So far, the most modern method, recognized by many professional eye surgeons – laser eye surgery. It ensures a precisely accurate and patient-safe result,” says microsurgeon V. Švedienė.
According to the doctor, the laser captures the position of the eye thousands of times per second, so the procedure is extremely accurate and safe. Without any additional touch or incision, the laser beam affects the upper part of the cornea, causing cornea convexity to change and the light rays to be refracted correctly. Vision is improved in just 15 minutes.
The World Health Organization predicts that by the year 2050, half of the world ‘s population will have sight-seeing complaints. Correcting myopia with lenses is not the best option as well – improper wearing can lead to infections, inflammation, or even serious complications.
The rapid development of technologies has enabled people to purchase services not only faster but cheaper too – the cost of laser vision correction is now much lower than a decade ago. Calculating the total amount spent on changing eyeglasses, frames, contact lenses, their fluids sometimes the result is higher than the laser eye surgery price, and there is much less comfort.
Bacteria multiply vision problems as well
Today, experts advise not to touch the face, but this is difficult to avoid if you want to fix the frames of the glasses – to sweep away sweat or wipe the glasses that are dewy from the protective mask.
Wearing eyeglasses people faces not only the inconvenience of fogging the glasses but also unwanted skin rashes. According to cosmetology experts, when touching various surfaces, objects or handles, a lot of bacteria and air pollution elements such as dust, metals or other particles remain on our hands, so often by fixing eyeglasses or touching facial skin, we promote clogging of skin pores or acutance of inflammatory rashes. The skin, by its protective function, releases sebum, which protects against moisture evaporation and harmful environmental factors. During the day, sebum mixes with sweat, environmental particles, or make-up, and all of this often stays on the eyeglass’s frames, so it is especially important to disinfect the glasses frames daily with a disinfectant wipe or other products.
In their daily practice, cosmetologists also often find that clients who wear eyeglasses and severely press the nose of the glasses due to constant mechanical irritation and pressure particularly injure the blood vessels in the nasal area – this should be noted.
“Understandably, because of the current situation in the country, people may delay eye examination or invest in laser eye vision correction, but we do not recommend procrastinating what is related to vision. The earlier you take care of it, the more likely you are to avoid trouble in the future, concludes,” V. Švedienė.
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