An article regarding a very simple eyesight test.
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Shouldn’t replace a trip to the optometrist.
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Australian researchers are developing a bionic eye system.
A bionic eye offers the possibility of those without sight gaining an extra sense to navigate the real world.
Having just been for an eye sight test, it’s a timely reminder of how important our vision is, and that it needs professional care. Especially as we age with cataracts and glaucoma and other risks.
The visit followed a serious eye trauma at the start of the year. Eye testing and the several months of treatment I required were all at no cost, aside from the PBS medications required. I could add the cost and time of needing to be driven the 30km each way to the eye hospital (numerous visits).
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I have been most fortunate to reach 70 years without any serious vision problems.
I merely need glasses for driving due to some short sightedness which has reduced over the past 30 years and some long sightedness which means I occassionally need to use my reading glasses for fine print such as the nutrition panels on food packaging.
I used to go to business conferences some 30 years ago and wondered why the overhead projector displays were always blurry necessitating me to squint my eyes to read them until I happened to visit the GP clinic near my mother’s home in Brisbane.
I was having some bad headaches and during the consultation, the GP asked me if I could read a road sign on the other side of the intersection, which I could not.
He handed me his glasses and the sign was crystal clear.
Unfortunately, my wife has both cataracts and glucoma which she is having treatment for, and my only sibling has 50% sight in one eye and a mere 5% sight in her other eye which resulted in her not pursuing her ambition to study medicine.
I will get an eye test again soon, and no doubt, they will say that I need different lenses.
If so, I will simply state that I will reuse my perfectly good existing titanium frames once again, much to the disappointment of OPSM.
My independent optometrist’s staff told me they will not replace the lens in frames over 5 years, as I had scratched one lens in my old reading glasses. Frames are the most expensive part of the deal. I didn’t push the issue, but it appeared a problem with their provider not wanting to be responsible for old frames.
Mr Z’s eyesight (only occasionally uses glasses for fine print) is improving. The optometrist who has been at this for decades, said often eyesight gets better just before it deteriorates and expects the cataracts that are in the early stages to start impacting his vision in the next 5 to 10 years.
As a consequence of the pandemic reducing trade, our optometrist has now introduced a fee on top of the Medicare rebate in order to stay in business.
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A test for colour blindness.
During a consulation with my pain management specialist this week, he expressed his surprise that I could still read small print without glasses at my age.
That “test” is just entertainment. A monochrome silhouette of a stag is hardly going to test colour perception.
I thought the remark
If you can’t answer the questions in our test, that may mean some colours are invisible to you. If that’s the case, you may want to consult an ophthalmologist.
was peculiar. What is the ophthalmologist going to do for you if you are colour blind? Perhaps advise that a career as a colour-matcher or blacksmith is not for you.
There are genuine tests available online, many are based on Ishihara. This one is not. It not only tells you where your problems lie but gives an idea of how severe they are. Contrary to what is often taught in Biology-101 colour confusion is not an all-or-nothing genetic issue, you can have milder or more severe forms. The most common sort red-green confusion comes in various kinds and degrees.
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