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Low vision means that even with regular glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery, people find everyday tasks difficult to do. Reading the mail, shopping, cooking, seeing the TV, and writing can seem challenging. Millions of Americans lose some of their vision every year. Irreversible vision loss is most common among people over age 65.

Yet losing vision just because of getting older is not the case. Some normal changes in our eyes and vision occur as we get older. However, these changes usually don't lead to low vision.

Most people develop low vision because of eye diseases and health conditions like macular degeneration, cataract, glaucoma, and diabetes. A few people develop vision loss after eye injuries or from birth defects. While vision that's lost usually cannot be restored, many people can make the most of the vision they have.

Your eye care professional can tell the difference between normal changes in the aging eye and those caused by eye diseases.

Types of Low Vision

Although reduced central or reading vision is most common, low vision may also result from decreased side (peripheral) vision, or a loss of color vision. Or, your eye might lose the ability to adjust to light, contrast or glare. Different types of low vision may require different kinds of assistance. For example, people born with low vision have different needs from those who develop low vision later in life.

Though most often experienced by the elderly, people of all ages may be affected. Low vision can occur from birth defects, inherited diseases, injuries, diabetes, glaucoma, cataract and aging. The most common cause is macular degeneration, a disease of the retina, the inner layer of the eye that senses light and allows you to see. Macular degeneration causes damage to central vision. It does not cause total blindness, because side (peripheral) vision is not affected.

Trouble in reading

There are many signs that can signal vision loss. For example, even with your regular glasses, do you have difficulty:

Recognizing faces of friends and relatives?
Doing things that require you to see well up close, like reading, cooking, sewing, or fixing things around the house?
Picking out and matching the color of your clothes?
Doing things at work or home because lights seem dimmer than they used to?
Reading street and bus signs or the names of stores?

Vision changes like these could be early warning signs of eye disease. Usually, the earlier your problem is diagnosed, the better the chance of successful treatment and keeping your remaining vision.

Help is available to people with low vision. Following a complete vision examination and treatment of any underlying disease or condition causing the decrease in vision, a thorough low vision evaluation can be conducted. During this examination close attention is given to the effects of decreased vision on the patient's lifestyle and a plan is designed to best meet the patient's needs and goals.

With appropriate devices and training, patients with low vision can learn to use their remaining vision to its full potential so that they can live as independently as possible.

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Disclaimer: Any information displayed here is just for educational purposes, and may not be taken as an expert advice and should not be applied in life without consulting your eye doctor/specialist. We here by take no responsiblity of the accuracy of the above content as they have been taken from various sources.

Did you know ?

Between 40 and 45 million persons are blind and cannot walk about unaided. This figure will double over the next 25 years, unless decisive public health action is taken.

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Low Vision