Myths and facts

Myths and facts related to eye

The following table lists some of the myths and the corresponding facts related to EYE:

Myth	Fact
Wearing sunglasses inside will harm your eyes.	Darkly tinted glasses are designed to protect from glare and-as "cool" as they may look-probably should not be worn inside. Doing so, however, will not hurt the eyes.
Reading in poor light or prolonged reading of very fine print will ultimately harm your vision.	Although reading in dim light is unwise because it may cause your eyes to feel tired or uncomfortable, it can't hurt your eyes. There really is very little you can do that will permanently damage your eyes. Similarly, reading small print or reading extensively cannot cause damage to the eyes. This is true even for people who already have poor vision. They eyes are meant to be used!
Children outgrow crossed eyes	Strabismus (crossed eyes) is not normal in children older than four months of age and will not go away by itself. Children who appear to have crossed eyes should have an eye examination as soon as possible. Children are never too young to have their eyes examined if they are experiencing a visual problem. An eye exam should be done by the family doctor, pediatrician, or ophthalmologist during infancy and preschool years.
Wearing contact lenses will strengthen your eyes or prevent nearsightedness from getting worse.	Contact lenses do nothing to permanently alter the basic visual correction.
Eye trouble is the cause of reading disability (dyslexia)	There is no scientific evidence that problems with vision cause the learning disorder dyslexia.
Wearing glasses tends to weaken the eyes.	People who have been able to read easily close up without glasses may find that they cannot do so as they get older (past 40). When they begin to need stronger and stronger glasses, they may assume that wearing glasses has "ruined" their eyes. In actuality, they are experiencing a normal condition called presbyopia - the inability of the aging eye to focus on near objects. When children become nearsighted (myopic), usually between the ages of 8 and 12, there is a natural progression in their myopia and a need for a stronger correction over the next few years. These children, as well as nearsighted adults, may believe that glasses have weakened their eyes when their lens prescription needs to be made stronge. Glasses, hovever, do no weaken eyes; they are simply aids to improve vision.
Eating carrots will improve your vision.	You may have been skeptical about this as a child! This myth possibly originated because carrots contain vitamin A, which is necessary for sight. However, the vitamin A in carrots alone - while nutritional - has relatively little effect on improving vision.
Working many hours in front of a computer screen will harm your eyes.	Although using computers will not damage your eyes, fatigue or eye strain may occur with prolonged use.
Fluorescent lighting damages your eyes.	This myth may have developed because the original fluorscent lights produced an annoying flicker. This flicker was harmless. The modern fluorescent lamp neither flickers nor causes harm to the eyes.
During eye surgery, the eye is removed from its socket.	The eye is never removed from its socket during any kind of operation. To do so would permanently disconnect the eye fromt he optic nerve, the "nerve of sight." During eye surgery, a lid speculum is placed int he eye. This instrument spreads the eyelids apart and allows the surgeon easy access to the eye.
A cataract must be "ripe" before it can be removed.	A cataract is an opacity of the lens of the eye. When the lens becomes totally opaque, the cataract is sometimes called "ripe." A cataract should be removed surgically at any time that it is impairing the person's activities. Thus, you don't have to wait until the lens becomes totally opaque to operate. On the other hand, not every cataract has to be removed. If someone with a small cataract has good visual function, surgery may not be necessary.
A laser is used to remove a cataract.	This is not true. Lasers are frequently used, however, to open an after-cataract. This occurs when the portion of the membrane of the lens that is left in the eye after cataract surgery becomes cloudy.
A diagnosis of glaucoma means that you will become blind.	This is certainly not true if glaucoma is treated early. Patients with early-detected glaucoma can retain normal vision if they continue to use their prescribed medications. Unfortunately, glaucoma remains a major cause of blindness in America. This is largely because a common type of glaucoma, open angle glaucoma, is often symptom-free until late in the progression of th disease. Most types of glaucoma are characterized by an abnormally increased pressure inside the eye. Measurement of the intraocular pressure, therefore, is an essential step to detect glaucoma and should be a part of a complete eye exam.
All eye surgery is successful.	In general, eye surgery is quite successful for most ocular conditions. As with all surgery, it is not 100% successful, but the success rate for many of th eocular procedures is 90% or better. Complications do happen sometimes, and the possibility of problems occurring during or after surgery should be realized. However, improved technology has greatly reduced the risk of complications resulting from surgery. Today much eye surgery is done with the use of an operating microscope. The microscope provides the surgeon high degrees of magnification of the eye, which has helped decrease surgical complications. Because fewer complications occur, most eye surgery today is done on an outpatient basis.

Myths and facts