Your Neighbourhood Optometrist

LASIK does not remove the retinal risks associated with high myopia. LASIK reshapes the cornea so that you can see clearly without glasses, but it does not undo the length the eye has already grown to. In high myopia, the eyeball is usually elongated, which means the axial length is longer than average. The risk of damage at the back of the eye rises with every additional millimetre. If your prescription was high before surgery, your retina should still be examined at the same recommended intervals.

A thinner cornea can also cause the pressure inside the eye to be underestimated. This is important when screening for glaucoma.

A child with a lazy eye may never complain. Amblyopia, often called lazy eye, is reduced vision that develops during childhood when the brain does not receive the visual experience it needs for vision to develop normally. It can affect one or both eyes, even when the eyes themselves appear healthy.

It can happen when there is a large difference in prescription between the two eyes (anisometropia), when both eyes have a high uncorrected prescription, or when an eye turns inward or outward (strabismus, or a squint). Less commonly, something that blocks clear vision early in life can also lead to amblyopia.

The signs are not always obvious, and children often do not realise that they are seeing differently. Parents may only discover it during an eye examination.

Vision develops rapidly during childhood, so amblyopia is best identified and managed early. If it is not managed, reduced vision can persist into adulthood.

Changes can begin before you notice them. Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol can affect the blood vessels throughout the body, including the tiny vessels in the retina at the back of the eye.

These changes can develop without affecting your vision at first. Diabetes and high blood pressure, for example, may cause damage to the retinal blood vessels before you notice any symptoms. Sometimes, these changes are the first sign of a condition that has not yet been diagnosed.

The retina gives us a rare opportunity to see these blood vessels directly and non-invasively. A retinal photograph helps us look for changes and provides a record we can compare over time.

If we see something that needs attention, we will explain what we find and advise you on the next step.

Your child’s eyes grow as they grow. Like the rest of the body, the eyes grow during childhood. One important measure of this growth is the length of the eye, known as axial length.

In children with myopia (short-sightedness), the eye tends to grow longer than expected. The more the eye elongates, the greater the risk of certain eye problems later in life.

That is why we look beyond the prescription. Measuring axial length allows us to track how the eye is growing over time and see whether myopia is progressing as expected or more quickly than it should.

This helps guide decisions about your child’s myopia care.

Tired eyes after screen time may be more than tiredness. Digital eye strain describes a group of eye and vision symptoms associated with prolonged screen use and other close-up work.

You may see clearly and still experience headaches, tired or sore eyes, dryness, or vision that becomes blurred after prolonged near work.

Clear vision does not always mean your eyes are comfortable during prolonged screen use. There is often more than one factor involved, including an uncorrected prescription, focusing or eye coordination difficulties, dry eyes, and other factors related to prolonged near work.

A blue light filter alone may not address what is causing your symptoms.

That is why we look beyond visual clarity to understand what may be contributing to your symptoms.