To maintain eye health throughout life, it is necessary to prevent common diseases and vision changes that occur at each stage. After the age of forty, the need for glasses becomes evident and, successively, with advancing age, chronic eye diseases appear, all of which require permanent ophthalmological control.
We all run the risk of developing possible pathologies that do not present obvious symptoms or if they do not present it they are not continuous and that is why they go unnoticed, but they develop in our organism and if we do not treat them in time they can increase and complicate our ocular capacity, even causing damage. irreparable.
Therefore, the complete eye examination that includes pupil dilation allows our leading specialists to examine the parts that are behind the pupil in its entirety, such as the retina and the optic nerve, fundamental elements to maintain vision until advanced age, as well as allows the identification of signs of pathologies from other parts of the body that may have symptoms through our eyes.
Why is ocular dilation necessary?
The vision or image at the back of the eye cannot be fully appreciated when the pupil is not dilated. If your pupil is small, our ophthalmologist cannot see the optic nerve and the macula. To see the entire retina, the pupil must be dilated.
On the retina
It is the layer of light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eyeball, inaccessible if it is not dilated. Images that pass through the lens of the eye are focused on the retina. The retina then converts these images into electrical signals and sends them through the optic nerve to the brain.
The symptoms that indicate some alteration in the retina are the following:
- See floating spots or cobwebs; blurred or distorted vision; side vision defects and vision loss.
- Age-related macular degeneration (DMAD) is the most common cause of blindness at working age in Spain after 50 years.
About the optic nerve
The optic nerve is a sensory nerve responsible for transmitting visual information from the retina to the brain. The optic nerve groups more than a million nerve fibers that carry visual messages to the brain. This connects the back of each eye (your retina) to the brain.
Damage to the optic nerve can affect vision to some degree. The type of vision loss and its severity depends on where the damage occurs. It can affect one or both eyes. Diseases associated with the optic nerve are:
- Glaucoma - usually occurs when the pressure of the fluid inside the eye slowly rises and damages the optic nerve.
- Optic neuritis: inflammation of the optic nerve. Causes include infections and diseases related to the immune system, such as multiple sclerosis. Sometimes the cause is unknown.
- Optic nerve atrophy: damage to the optic nerve. Causes include poor blood flow to the eye, disease, trauma, or exposure to toxic substances.
- Drusen of the optic nerve head: they are pockets of proteins and calcium salts that accumulate in the optic nerve over time.
When ocular dilation is abnormal, it can also show other underlying diseases, such as neurological diseases, brain damage, diabetic retinopathy, inflammation of the arteries, high pressure in the eyes, inflammation of the optic nerve, among others.
Each of us has to give our ability to see all the importance and significance it has for our autonomous and daily life. It is one of the systems that we use daily, which provides us with information about everything that surrounds us, which facilitates and allows us to communicate without speaking.
It is our responsibility to care for and protect it. If an ophthalmological problem is diagnosed in time, we will not run the risk of losing our visual capacity. Let's take care of our eye health! At Clínica Nivaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife we will be happy to help you fulfill this purpose.
