In the words of a great bard: “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” For surely, all the beauty of our life would be lost without our eyes. Hence, we must love our eyes and that begins with proper care of this vital part of our body.

With growing interest in personal health care and consciousness, more and more people want to know about their precious eyes. Knowledge about our eyes can actually help us prevent some serious eye ailments.

Basics of the eye

Proper understanding of our eyes and their functioning starts with some idea about their biology, development and structure. This eye care portal incorporates some useful details about the basic physiology of the eye.

Eye check ups form an integral part of health care. It is very important to get your eyes checked by trained professionals from time to time. As a precursor to that, learn about eyes and eye examinations in the relevant section of this web site. This section also provides information on how to identify an eye problem and when to go for a check-up.

An eye examination involves practitioners like opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. But do you know which eye expert would suit your needs and how they differ in their practices and services? Check out a comparative analysis of various eye care practitioners in the section dedicated to this topic.

The most important issue of an eye check up is diagnosis of any eye defect and the prescription for it. Eyeglasses (spectacles) and contact lenses are the two most prescribed and affordable means of correcting common eye errors. Once you are prescribed eyeglasses and contact lenses, it is good to be equipped with details about the variety and types available and applicable to an individual. The safe use of contact lenses is also essential to maintain basic hygiene and also prevent certain diseases that result from their contamination.

Eye problems

Our eyes suffer from various ailments from time to time, from simple refractive errors (focusing disorders) like farsightedness and nearsightedness, to complicated diseases like diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, uveitis, keratitis and many other serious conditions. As the old advice say, that prevention is better than cure, so it is true with our eyes and the best tool for disease prevention is awareness. Besides congenital causes, many eye problems occur due to ignorance and lack of hygiene. As the popular saying goes; “the worst blind man is one who doesn’t want to see”.

A section of this website is dedicated to various eye problems which include myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, astigmatism, allergic eye diseases, conjunctivitis (pink eye), blepharitis, diabetic retinopathy etc. Articles on these topics give an overview of the history, causes, diagnosis, symptoms, treatment and prevalence of these diseases.

Eye care procedures

Apart from the various eye diseases, it is also handy to know about eye care procedures and the latest trends in this field. There has been a lot of development in eye care procedures especially with the invention of contact lenses and laser technology.

Since the advent of contact lenses marked a milestone in ophthalmic care, any eye care manual would be incomplete without details about them. Around 30 million people in the U.S. use contact lenses and such growing popularity is similar worldwide. For all the existing and prospective contact lens users, some insight into its usage is always helpful.

The articles on contact lenses, corneal reshaping, intraocular lenses and orthokeratology throw light on the latest contact lens designs, products and applications. Since contact lens disorders are very common, there is an entire article dedicated to the topic and how to go about avoiding associated eye ailments.

Application of laser technology to ophthalmic procedures has also revolutionized eye care. It has enabled either minimal or totally non-invasive eye surgeries that also ensure patient comfort and minimum recovery time. This website includes a detailed section on laser-assisted vision correcting procedures like keratoplasty, photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), lasik eye surgery and lasek eye surgery. These procedures have been compared and contrasted to help prospective patients weigh their options.

It is also crucial to know about these surgical procedures of the eye before going for them, especially since most of them are highly complex, can have side effects and may also involve complications. Patient counseling, in fact, forms an integral part of pre-operative measures for these state-of-the-art surgeries.

Therapeutic approaches

Proper eye care also includes knowing something about therapeutic procedures. Different remedial options for various kinds of ailments have also been dealt with in this eye care portal. Special emphasis has been given on diseases of global concern like cataracts and glaucoma, due to their high prevalence and their rising threat to useful vision. Any eye care discussion must also include updates about the latest technologies such as INTACs, cosmetic blepharoplasty etc.

All this and much more, makes eye care a highly challenging part of health consciousness.