Common Eye Conditions

The following are brief explanations of some of the most common eye disorders.  They do not replace a comprehensive eye examination and if you think you may have one of these please see your optometrist for advice.
A great resource for more information is Optometry Australia's Good Vision For Life page.

Myopia (short-sightedness)

Myopia – or short-sightedness – is a common vision condition that causes distant objects to appear blurry. It typically begins in childhood and tends to worsen as a child grows. But increasingly, parents are being urged to think beyond just correcting blurred vision with glasses or contact lenses.

Hyperopia (long-sightedness)

Hyperopia is the most common eye condition in Australia and is also called long-sightedness or far-sightedness. If you are long-sighted, nearby objects look blurry or you might be able to focus clearly but get tired eyes or headaches. You can see distant objects very well but have difficulty seeing clearly when doing things up close, such as reading books or looking at the computer screen. For people with significant long-sightedness, vision can be blurry for things in the distance as well.

Astigmatism

Astigmatism isn’t dangerous – it simply means that the front surface of a person’s eye (the cornea) has a curvature shaped more like a rugby ball than a soccer ball. Light enters the eye through the cornea and bends (refracts) to focus on the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye (the retina). From there, a signal is sent to the brain, which then processes the image that we see. Normally the cornea’s curvature allows light entering the eye to focus at one point on the retina and this creates a clear, crisp image. When the cornea is shaped more like a rugby ball, light entering the eye focuses at two places on the retina and this leads to blurred vision.

Presbyopia

Presbyopia is the gradual reduction in flexibility of the lens of the eye with age. A normal part of aging, presbyopia usually becomes noticeable between the ages of 40 and 50 as an inability to focus on near objects. People who first experience presbyopia often find they have to hold things further away to be able to see them clearly.

Pterygium

A pterygium (pronounced te-ri-gi-um, plural: pterygia) is fleshy tissue that grows in a triangular shape over the cornea. It most commonly occurs on the inner corner of the eye but can also appear on the outer corner, and it may grow large enough to interfere with vision. It is caused by UV exposure and sometimes dusty environments.

Cataract

When the normally clear lens inside your eye becomes cloudy, this is known as a cataract. Having a cataract is like looking through a dirty window and is a leading cause of vision impairment. While most cataracts are found in people aged over 50, cataracts can also occur at younger ages.
Cataracts can be treated with surgery but they also account for a huge amount of vision loss around the world.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is deterioration of the macula, which is the small central area of the retina of the eye that is responsible for our central vision.

The macula is a very small (but very important) part of the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The macula is responsible for the detailed sharp vision that is used for reading, recognising faces, driving and any other activity that requires you to see fine detail.

​Glaucoma

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of eye diseases where vision is lost due to damage to the optic nerve. More than 300,000 Australians are thought to have glaucoma, but only 50 per cent have been diagnosed. Generally there are no symptoms or warning signs in the early stages of this eye condition. The loss of sight is usually gradual and a considerable amount of peripheral (side) vision may be lost before there is an awareness of any problem. Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.
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Although anyone can develop glaucoma, some people have a higher risk - they are people who:

• Have a family history of glaucoma
• Have high eye pressure
• Are aged over 50
• Are of African or Asian descended ethnicity
• Have diabetes
• Are short or long sighted
• Have a previous history of eye injury
• Have a past or present prolonged use of cortisone drugs (steroids)
• Get migraines
• Have high or low blood pressure