| gudrun17 2006-02-27, 11:01 am |
|
Dan Abel wrote:
> In article <1140997971.906291.200120@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>,
> "alexgo" <a_golovan@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> As a layperson and parent, I don't think so. Severe myopia makes it
> harder to correct vision. I found that with -12D, glasses didn't work
> well. Contacts worked fine.
>
> With severe myopia, when one wakes up in the middle of night with no
> correction, it is hard to get around. Losing your glasses is a major
> crisis, if that is your only correction.
>
> With contacts that work, severe myopia is just not a problem.
>
> There is a correlation between severe myopia and retinal detachments. I
> personally don't believe that myopia causes retinal detachments, but
> that abnormally shaped eyes cause both. I have had detachments in both
> eyes, and it isn't fun.
>
I used to think that having severe myopia (-8 and -9) was merely
inconvenient, since as you say, I could see perfectly well with contact
lenses. However, with age the risk of both retinal detchments and
glaucoma seems to rise. I'm not sure that myopia itself raises the risk
of glaucoma but it does make it harder to detect.
When I was 18, of course, neither retinal detachments nor future risk
of glaucoma meant anything to me. Back then I was fitted with hard
contact lenses (not RGPs) for the same reason, to halt progression of
myopia. I can't say whether it really worked but my prescription did
cease to change--although maybe it wouldn't have gotten any worse
anyway.
Years later I was switched to rigid gas permeable lenses and I recall
that the optometrist said my prescription would change due to the eye
getting more oxygen. It did, and I thought at the time it got better,
but maybe I'm misremembering. I suppose the point is moot now because I
don't think anyone wears the old-fashioned hard contact lenses anymore.
About ten years ago I switched to soft contact lenses from gas
permeable and my myopia did not get any worse, but by then I was almost
40.
On the other hand, my mother's prescription is about the same as mine
and she only wore contact lenses for a few years ca. 1950, so I have a
suspicion the degree of myopia one develops is mainly genetic and has
little to do with whether you wear hard or RGP lenses.
-Gudrun
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