Glasses: yes or no?

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Kinis

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Kinis said:
Went to see an ophthalmologist recently and was diagnosed with an astigmatism. I went for the check because I have noticed that I have to occasionally ask people sitting next to me in lectures to tell me what's written on the board.

Have a prescription for corrective lenses but was convinced by a (non-medic) friend to hold up as there is new research showing that wearing corrective lenses can worsen one's eyesight.. Had always assumed this to be an medical myth, but just in case lol, is there any such evidence, new or old, to support this claim?
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I find my eyesight is much worse when I'm not wearing my glasses.
 
How do I wear glasses in medical school
 
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Kinis said:
Went to see an ophthalmologist recently and was diagnosed with an astigmatism. I went for the check because I have noticed that I have to occasionally ask people sitting next to me in lectures to tell me what's written on the board.

Have a prescription for corrective lenses but was convinced by a (non-medic) friend to hold up as there is new research showing that wearing corrective lenses can worsen one's eyesight.. Had always assumed this to be an medical myth, but just in case lol, is there any such evidence, new or old, to support this claim?
Click to expand...

You are a medical student right? Like, the kind the believes in science? Glasses make your vision worse, huh?

Its that Lasik you gotta watch out for. Gives you cancer.
 
Kinis said:
Went to see an ophthalmologist recently and was diagnosed with an astigmatism. I went for the check because I have noticed that I have to occasionally ask people sitting next to me in lectures to tell me what's written on the board.

Have a prescription for corrective lenses but was convinced by a (non-medic) friend to hold up as there is new research showing that wearing corrective lenses can worsen one's eyesight.. Had always assumed this to be an medical myth, but just in case lol, is there any such evidence, new or old, to support this claim?
Click to expand...

No. You have had your first experience with the flood of free advice that is always available from the uninitiated and less trained. Welcome to medicine. Wear your glasses so you can effing see.
 
not sure if my lecture hall even has a board
 
Ya can't risk wearing them. Might as well not breathe either as there are bacteria in the air that could infect you. (I love using this argument against germaphobes)
 
If you need corrective lenses, just get them. No, they won't make your eyes worse. This is a myth that builds on research noting that corrective lenses will increase your dependency on them.
 
Corrective lenses increase your dependency on them in the same way that you will be more dependent on a car if you need to drive 15 min to work everyday rather than walk for 2 hours to get to work.
 
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Morsetlis said:
Corrective lenses increase your dependency on them in the same way that you will be more dependent on a car if you need to drive 15 min to work everyday rather than walk for 2 hours to get to work.
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lolol
 
Atropine, glasses, contact lenses and surgery all do not curtail the progression of ammetropia (defocus or optical abnormality of the eye). There is only one modality of optical correction of the eye that is scientifically proven (not extensively yet) to curtail the progression of visual deficits. This is called orthokeratology. Basically, this entails wearing a hard gas permeable lens on your eye at night so that the cornea changes its shape and then for the rest of the day you can have perfect, or near perfect vision without wearing anything on or over the eye.

The purported reason why ortho-k curtails the progression of farsightedness or nearsightedness is because of the peripheral defocus. The retina detects over many months what you subject your eyes to and it sends out signals to manipulate the axial length of the eye. That is why many medical students for example first experience nearsightedness in their life after a year or two of medical school. Because they subject themselves to a lot of studying/reading aka near work. So when your central vision is corrected by the orthokeratology for you to subjectively see better, your peripheral retina is still subject to a slight defocus so this purportedly lessens the signals for axial length lengthening or shortening and also of corneal flattening or steepening. This is the forefront of vision research right now.
 
Morsetlis said:
Corrective lenses increase your dependency on them in the same way that you will be more dependent on a car if you need to drive 15 min to work everyday rather than walk for 2 hours to get to work.
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This. People often don't realize just how bad their vision has become until they get glasses and have something to compare it to. And usually when they get glasses, they decide they prefer being able to see clearly.
 
Just wear your glasses. Common Sense ;)
 
Initially thought that the OP was referring to the contact lenses that work to correct your astigmatism (Toric?). If that's the case, I'd stick with glasses vs contacts just because of the body fluid splashes and insanely dry air of a hospital.


If this is a question of whether or not to wear glasses that help you see better... come on man.
 
All glasses do is refract light...either convergently or divergently depending on the lens (choice
of which depends on if you're hyperopic or myopic...convergent and divergent lenses, respectively). Makes no sense that they would worsen your eyesight over time (which is what he was asking...for everyone who thought he was asking if glasses can help you see better... roofles).
 
CaptainSSO said:
All glasses do is refract light...either convergently or divergently depending on the lens (choice
of which depends on if you're hyperopic or myopic...convergent and divergent lenses, respectively). Makes no sense that they would worsen your eyesight over time (which is what he was asking...for everyone who thought he was asking if glasses can help you see better... roofles).
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Actually, it depends on a few things. Generally you are correct, because on a mature patient all you are doing is making the eye see what it should see. But in kids (under 8 or 9 I think) the neural pathways arent fully developed. Mis-correction with a lens will cause the brain to, in effect, ignore those signals in favor of the good (or better) eye which will result in a neurologically based blindness in the other eye.

Look up amblyopia and vision loss.
 
CaptainSSO said:
All glasses do is refract light...either convergently or divergently depending on the lens (choice
of which depends on if you're hyperopic or myopic...convergent and divergent lenses, respectively). Makes no sense that they would worsen your eyesight over time (which is what he was asking...for everyone who thought he was asking if glasses can help you see better... roofles).
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Or both simultaneously if the person has mixed astigmatism. :D

Yes, fully correcting your eye sight with glasses can worsen your eyesight over time depending on what you are doing. Even not correcting your slightly myopic eyes and just reading books all day can make you more myopic. As you all know our bodies are extremely adaptive and adapt to what we expose them to.
 
Shnurek said:
Or both simultaneously if the person has mixed astigmatism. :D

Yes, fully correcting your eye sight with glasses can worsen your eyesight over time depending on what you are doing. Even not correcting your slightly myopic eyes and just reading books all day can make you more myopic. As you all know our bodies are extremely adaptive and adapt to what we expose them to.
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after a ton of reading and a pissing match with an optometrist, I am only aware of a risk in children. I did not see any literature (primary or textbook) that suggests that adults will experience vision loss beyond a normal progression of disease regardless of the correction that is used
 
Ya in children and teenagers definitely as the eye is still growing. Adults. ...ya not really empirically proven one way or the other. But what is proven is myopic progression in adults from excessive exposure to near work though not to all people obviously.
 
Shnurek said:
Ya in children and teenagers definitely as the eye is still growing. Adults. ...ya not really empirically proven one way or the other. But what is proven is myopic progression in adults from excessive exposure to near work though not to all people obviously.
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So..... not due to corrective lens use. Rather progression due to non treatment
 
SpecterGT260 said:
So..... not due to corrective lens use. Rather progression due to non treatment
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Ya, its better to treat the refractive error than to just do nothing. The best strategy is atropine to ****** myopia progression but who wants to be dilated and have no lens focusing ability for near work for 2 weeks at a time for years lol. Also if you halt the atropine, after about a year to three years the refractive error returns to what it would have been if you did nothing at all. So kind of pointless. Like I said before, only corneal reshaping therapy (CRT) or ortho-keratology seems to hold the most promise in halting myopia progression and keeping it there. There are other charts I can show you for more long term efficacy but this is all I could find at the moment. This chart only depicts what the different modalities do while the patient continues to use them.

rccl0412-myopia1.gif
 
Shnurek said:
Ya, its better to treat the refractive error than to just do nothing. The best strategy is atropine to ****** myopia progression but who wants to be dilated and have no lens focusing ability for near work for 2 weeks at a time for years lol. Also if you halt the atropine, after about a year to three years the refractive error returns to what it would have been if you did nothing at all. So kind of pointless. Like I said before, only corneal reshaping therapy (CRT) or ortho-keratology seems to hold the most promise in halting myopia progression and keeping it there. There are other charts I can show you for more long term efficacy but this is all I could find at the moment. This chart only depicts what the different modalities do while the patient continues to use them.

rccl0412-myopia1.gif
Click to expand...

Yes. Remember this thread was about glasses themselves causing progression.
 
Just because I am too lazy to look myself... is near focused caused myopia permanent after the act is discontinued for an extended amount of time?
 
tiedyeddog said:
Just because I am too lazy to look myself... is near focused caused myopia permanent after the act is discontinued for an extended amount of time?
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I don't think you are asking this correctly.... myopia IS nearsightedness (the light tends to focus in front of the retina). Are you asking if focusing on "too close" objects causes myopia? Just trying to understand your question - not trying to dog on you
 
SpecterGT260 said:
I don't think you are asking this correctly.... myopia IS nearsightedness (the light tends to focus in front of the retina). Are you asking if focusing on "too close" objects causes myopia? Just trying to understand your question - not trying to dog on you
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I am asking if my nearsighted-ness gets worse because I am a good medical student and read Robbins too many times with my nose touching the page, if I go live on an island in the carribean and only look at the horizon all day is my new nearsightedness permanent?
 
Probably permanent. Probably not related to your reading habits. If you have your nose that close you need to go get your Rx adjusted ;)

What is robbins? :oops:
 
How bad is your vision without glasses? Are we talking 20/30 bad or 20/60+ bad? I assume its not very poor since you functioned alright without glasses so far. Do you feel that your eyes are "strained" after lectures?
 
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How bout you go see an eye doctor and stop asking for medical advice on SDN. Yes, glasses are a medical device just like a hearing aid is or a prosthetic leg. Hell even compression stockings are medical devices.
 
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