Eye 101

I often find educating my patients about the basic structure of the eye is very useful to help them understand their eye conditions.

Basically the eye is like a camera. Cameras have typically two lenses to focus light. The front lens of the eye (called the cornea) has a fixed power and is similar to the lens in the front of a camera which is covered by the lens cap. The inside lens of the eye (called the lens) is like the zooming lens of the camera. This allows you to have a range of vision. Unfortunately this range gets less as you age which is why you need reading glasses.

The photographic film or image sensor of the camera is called the retina. For you to see a sharp image, all 3 elements of the eye camera need to be healthy, the right shape and the right distance from each other. For example, if you are very shorted sighted e.g. more than -6.00D then typically the eyeball shape is such that the retina is too far away from the cornea and the lens. Sometimes the retina may also be thinner and unhealthy, which further worsens the vision.

Laser eye surgery such as SMILE or LASIK involves reshaping the cornea or front lens to compensate for the distance mismatch to the retina. You can also replace the inside lens by cataract surgery to achieve the same result. One day we might be able to reshape your retina... but not quite yet

* Information on this blog is general in nature and should not be taken as professional medical advice or as a substitute for a consultation with a medical professional.