Maintaining good eye health throughout life requires preventing common eye diseases and addressing the vision changes that occur at each stage. After age forty, the need for glasses becomes apparent, and subsequently, with advancing age, chronic eye diseases develop, all of which necessitate regular eye exams.
We all run the risk of developing possible pathologies that do not present obvious symptoms or if they do, they are not continuous and therefore go unnoticed, but they develop in our body and if not treated in time they can increase and complicate our visual capacity, even causing irreparable damage.
Therefore, a comprehensive eye exam that includes pupil dilation allows our leading specialists to examine the parts behind the pupil in their entirety, such as the retina and optic nerve, which are fundamental to maintaining vision into old age. It also allows for the identification of signs of pathologies in other parts of the body that may have symptoms through our eyes.
Why is ocular dilation necessary?
The image from the back of the eye cannot be fully seen when the pupil is not dilated. If your pupil is small, our ophthalmologist cannot see the optic nerve and macula. To see the entire retina, the pupil must be dilated.
On the retina
It is the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eyeball, inaccessible unless dilated. Images passing through the eye's lens are focused onto the retina. The retina then converts these images into electrical signals and sends them via the optic nerve to the brain.
The symptoms that indicate some alteration in the retina are the following:
- Seeing floaters or cobwebs; blurred or distorted vision; defects in peripheral vision and vision loss.
- Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most frequent cause of blindness in working-age people in Spain, starting at age 50.
About the optic nerve
The optic nerve is a sensory nerve responsible for transmitting visual information from the retina to the brain. It comprises over a million nerve fibers that carry visual messages to the brain. It connects the back of each eye (its retina) to the brain.
Damage to the optic nerve can affect vision to some degree. The type and severity of vision loss depends on where the damage occurs. It can affect one or both eyes. Diseases associated with the optic nerve include:
- 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 immune system-related diseases, 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.
- Optic nerve head drusen: These are pockets of protein and calcium salts that accumulate in the optic nerve over time.
When eye dilation is abnormal, it can also indicate other underlying diseases, such as neurological diseases, brain damage, diabetic retinopathy, inflammation of the arteries, high eye pressure, inflammation of the optic nerve, among others.
Each of us must recognize the importance and significance of our sense of sight for our independent and daily lives. It is one of the systems we use every day, providing us with information about everything around us and facilitating communication without words.
It is our responsibility to care for and protect our eyes. If an eye problem is diagnosed early, we won't risk losing our sight. Let's take care of our eye health! At Clínica Nivaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, we'd be delighted to help you achieve this goal.
