Kids love to shove things in your face, especially really close to your eyes. For some reason, they seem to think that adults are blind and need an extreme close-up of what the kids want the adults to see. However, if your children put things in front of you that are ten to twelve inches away from your eyes, and you are still having trouble seeing what they want you to see, you might have a visual problem of a different sort.
Over Forty: Age-Related Visual Changes
Your eyes change just as much as the rest of you as you get older. After age forty, the lenses in your eyes start to lose their flexibility. They are not able to flex as easily as they once did, resulting in an inability to see things up close and far away simultaneously. This leads to the need to wear bifocals, but it's generally not an issue that will lead to blindness.
Over Sixty-Five: Macular Degeneration
Those over sixty-five may have macular degeneration. This slowly robs you of your center of vision, leaving you blind to everything you see facing forward. In a nasty twist, you can see everything else in your peripheral vision.
Over Seventy-Five: Cataracts
Actually, cataracts can strike anyone of any age, but they are much more common in the elderly. This is the point where your lenses are much less flexible and cloudy membranes begin to form over the lenses. They can completely blind you, but if caught soon enough by your optometrist, they can be removed surgically. Like the two other age-related eye problems above, you will notice that you cannot see things too clearly when objects are right in front of you.
What These Three Eye Disorders Have in Common
All three of the eye problems above slowly rob you of your ability to see clearly when looking ahead. In fact, their slow progression is exactly what makes them so troublesome. You may not even recognize that you have a problem until a child shoves something right in front of your eyes and you have to pull the object away from your face until you can see it. Take note of how long it takes you to refocus your vision before you can see something, as that will be vital to the diagnostic process of your optometrist.
If you have more questions about your eye health, talk to eye doctors at clinics like the Dixie Ophthalmic Specialists at Zion Eye Institute.
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