Cataract Simulator

A cataract is well known, but what is not well known, is that it cannot be diagnosed by looking at someone’s eye without the appropriate diagnostic equipment, so your ECP will give you advice. Cataracts are the hazing and milking up of one’s sight, which affects both distance and near vision. Cataracts have many different forms and types and caused by many different factors. Certainly the most common is the central hardening and opacification of the lens as a result of age and exposure to UV radiation.

• Causes
  Numerous, from age, genetics, diabetes, trauma and the use of chronic medication – to name a few.
• Treatment
  Wonderful success with lens extractions and the implanting of a new silicon lens, as performed by the ophthalmic surgeon. Spectacle correction often required following this surgery.

Glaucoma Simulator

Glaucoma is the eye’s inability to withstand its own fluid pressure. This fluid pressure damages the optic nerve (which links the eye and the brain), causing visual losses peripherally, centrally and with no treatment can result in total blindness. Glaucoma is painless and only detected when advanced, so regular screening is essential.

• Causes
  Glaucoma is caused by raised pressure in the eye, influenced by factors such as age, genetics and ancestry/race.
• Treatment
  Treatment includes management of the fluid pressure in the eye with the use of drops and in advanced cases, perhaps filtration surgery.

Our new glaucoma screening machine (the Zeiss Gdx polametry laser) ensures that we can diagnose glaucoma earlier and start treatment before any vision loss occurs. For more information,

Macular Degeneration Simulator

Macular Degeneration has two forms, either Wet or Dry macular degeneration, with wet having the greater impact on sight. The macula is a small (1mm surface area) of the eye which contains 60 000 receptors which generate all our central visual abilities for e.g. driving, reading, colour vision etc. Macular degeneration causes a slow loss of performance in this area due to receptor atrophy in this area – robbing you of your central vision.

• Causes
  Atrophy/tissue degeneration of the macula area. More often than not, both eyes. Often seen in the aged, light coloured eye and in smokers.
• Treatment
  Different treatment plans for Wet vs. Dry – timing of limited treatment scope is important. Regular visits to your ECP (eye care practitioner) over the age of 45yrs recommended.

Myopia Simulator

Myopia is a very common sight affecting condition, one which impacts on millions of people’s lives the world over. Myopia is the eyes inability to focus clearly on a distance and is also called near- or short-sightedness. Myopia is a refractive defect of the eye in which converged light produces image focus in front of the retina when accommodation is relaxed.

Those with myopia see nearby objects clearly but distant objects appear blurred. With myopia, the eyeball is either too long, or the cornea is too steep, so images are focused in the vitreous inside the eye rather than on the retina at the back of the eye.

• Treatment
  Myopia is most commonly corrected through the use of corrective lenses, such as glasses or contact lenses. It may also be corrected by refractive surgery, such as LASIK. The corrective lenses have a negative optical power (i.e. are concave).