Why it's important to get your eyes checked regularly
It’s the one sensory organ that is critical to safe driving, yet most of us fail to notice when our eyes are packing it in.Age is the most insidious cause of reduced vision – and a vision impairment that’s not at the forefront of our awareness makes us a serious danger on the roads. The future promise of autonomous motoring won’t be much help either. Not here and now, at least.
If we’ve acquired an injury to one or both eyes during our early years, or have even grown up with a congenital defect, we will be fully aware that our vision is impaired. As we age, however, our brain keeps making adjustments, without us consciously noting that we can no longer read road signs from a distance as well as we once did, or we’re less likely to see that kid on a bike in the periphery of our vision.
The brain is constantly making adjustments for our failing eyesight over a period of years. It’s valiantly trying to adjust for dark objects (animals, pedestrians) in low light or correctly interpreting a speed limit sign that’s partly obscured. But your brain will be busily filling in the gaps, so you won’t notice that some of the important details are missing – like the fast-moving skateboard rider entering the scene from stage left.
It goes without saying that having your vision checked is imperative. Certainly that’s the case by the time you reach 50, but health professionals suggest drivers should check their vision even earlier – 45 years or younger if there’s reason to think that your eyesight is worsening.
And obviously any sudden onset of vision impairment should be checked out at the earliest opportunity, because it could mean something life threatening – and not just from failing to see other road users until it's too late.
How the eye works
- Light enters the eye through the transparent cornea,
- It passes through the pupil, which dilates and contracts as the iris (a muscle) tenses or relaxes to allow more or less light to enter,
- Under the pupil is the lens, which focuses the light on the retina,
- The retina is a membrane comprising light-sensitive nerve cells, which connect to the optic nerve that runs from the rear of the eyeball to the brain
- The lens focuses the light on the macula, which is part of the retina dedicated to fine details, such as colour, the written word and facial recognition,
- Light ‘data’ is transmitted from the macula and the retina to the brain via the optic nerve,
- The brain interprets the received data and creates a 3D view based on the images from the two eyes.
Think of the eye as a camera, except the pupil and iris (the camera’s aperture) is in front of the eye’s lens, but behind the camera’s lens. The optic nerve is a USB lead and the brain as a laptop computer streaming video.
Common eyesight problems
- Astigmatism – misshaped cornea distorts the image passing through the lens of the eye, creating blurred images,
- Cataracts* – clouding of the lens, leading to blurriness, reduced night vision, light ‘halos’ and other symptoms,
- Glaucoma* – pressure build-up in eye’s fluid can damage optic nerve, resulting in tunnel vision/peripheral vision loss, pain, nausea, vomiting, light ‘halos’, blurriness and other symptoms,
- Hypermetropia – also known as farsightedness, and resulting from the shape of the eye, like myopia, but nearer objects remain out of focus and blurred while distant objects can appear in sharp focus,
- Macular degeneration* – loss of fine-detail vision to blurriness, blind spots and other symptoms,
- Myopia – also known as nearsightedness, an inherited condition in which distant objects are rendered blurred, as a consequence of the lens focusing images forward of the retina,
- Presbyopia* – inability to focus on objects close to the eye, symptoms similar to those of hypermetropia.
* Specifically an age-related condition.
These are just a few age-related ailments, but other eye problems can include diabetic retinopathy, which can indeed be age/lifestyle-related, and associated syndrome, macular edema.
If you're starting to see the warning signs of any of these conditions or are just starting to fail to see street signs, book yourself into your local optometrist. It's the easiest thing to ensure the safety of you and your passengers as well as other road users.
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