What Is Myopia?
Learn how your eye functions
In order to see clearly, light rays have to be totally centred on the optic retina at the back of the eye. The rays of light that emerge from an image go on through the clear cornea (covering of the eye) and then are bent as the travel through the eye’s integral lens, that controls the fine tuning of the focussing.
The optical image is made by the light sensitive retina commuting the light energy in to electical nerve impulses, which then communicate along nerves to the region at the back of the brain that processes vision. This occipital part of the cerebral cortex tells us what we are seeing
Short-sightedness (myopia)
With near sighted or myopic people, the orbit is too long, relative to the focussing strength of the cornea and lens unit. Hence the rays of light that come from the distant object converge in front of the retina as the corneal/lens focussing unit is too powerful.
This means that achieving a clear image of an object in the distance becomes increasingly challenging. Focussing on objects near by is OK. And So youngsters mightn’t learn as well as they can’t read what is written on the white board very easily.
In general, children and teenagers are the most commonly affected group of patients. You may find that the whole family have to wear glasses as there is a genetic tendency. However, these parents are usually well aware of the tell tale signs and Hence tend to bring their children to the aid of opticians relatively quickly.
Spectacles are needed to correct the focusing by creating another element to the cornea/lens unit, which distorts the visual image to allow it to focus on the retina more readily. It can be quite expensive to buy spectacles all the time. However, it is possible to buy your spectacles online now. Myopia can also be managed by wearing contact lenses or even undergoing laser surgery to correct the defective visual unit