As with most segments of the medical industry, there is no shortage of technical terminology in ophthalmology. From terms like pupilary distance to cataracts it is easy to get confused when your optician is explaining how healthy or unhealthy your eyes are.
In this post we will take you through a couple of terms that you are likely to come across during your next trip to the eye doctor.
What Is Long Sightedness?
Long sightedness is the colloquial term for a medical condition called Hyperopia. Hyperopia, as its colloquial name suggests, means that you have a near perfect ability to see things that are far into the distance. However, you will likely struggle with seeing things clearly that are quite close to you and your eyes.
What Causes Long Sightedness?
Long Sightedness or Farsightedness is most commonly caused by a cornea, which is the clear layer at the front of the eye, lacking curvature or being too short. These two issues, either in isolation or together, prevent light from focusing directly on the retina.
Most people with Hyperopia (long sightedness) are born with the condition, however, it often doesn’t become apparent or impact our vision until we age.
What Are The Symptoms of Long Sightedness?
Long Sightedness has many obvious symptoms:
- Nearby objects appear fuzzy or out of focus
- Having to squint to see clearly
- Tired or strained eyes after relatively short periods of time on a computer
- Regular and consistent headaches
- The startings of a lazy eye
What Is Short Sightedness?
Short Sightedness or Nearsightedness is the colloquial term for a medical condition called Myopia. Myopia is the total opposite of Hyperopia. If you have short sightedness you will be able to see things almost perfectly in your near-vision when things are up close; however when looking at objects in the distance, your vision should become blurry.
What Causes Short Sightedness?
Short Sightedness typically develops in early childhood, with the majority of eyesight changes happening through later childhood and early teenage years.
Myopia occurs most commonly when the shape of your eye causes light rays to bend incorrectly, focusing images in front of your retina, rather than on your retina. Nearsightedness is typically hereditary and therefore runs in families relatively consistently.
What Are The Symptoms of Short Sightedness?
Short Sightedness has many obvious symptoms:
- Difficulty reading things from a distance
- Needing to sit close to the TV
- Holding your phone close to your face
- Regular and consistent headaches
- Rubbing eyes a lot
Can You Have Short Sightedness & Long Sightedness At The Same Time?
The same eye cannot have myopia (short sightedness) and hyperopia (long sightedness) at the same time. However it is possible to have either myopia or hyperopia coupled with astigmatism.
Astigmatism occurs when your eye is shaped more like a rugby ball than a football, so that light is focused in more than one place in the eye. Astigmatism is a reflective error which is typically caused by a mismatch in the curvature of either the cornea or lens.
Whether you are a sufferer of myopia or hyperopia, if you have your most recent optical prescription to hand Lucyd Glasses could be your next pair of glasses.
