CRYSTALLINE: CATARACT AND PRESBYOPIA
The lens is a transparent structure inside the eye, which allows you to correctly focus on objects at different distances. The lens is shaped like a biconvex lens, meaning it resembles a flattened sphere. It is located just behind the pupil and its main function is to focus images no matter how far away they are. In essence, the lens is an ocular structure necessary to see correctly.
The ability to focus provided by the lens is due to the elasticity of the collagen fibers that form it. However, it loses this quality when we age, which causes loss of visual acuity. This is how presbyopia manifests itself.
Generally, this condition appears after the age of 40 due to the normal aging process. However, the age of onset is variable and is due to genetic factors and the presence of other refractive errors such as myopia or hyperopia.
The lens is transparent. Eye injuries, prolonged exposure to UV rays, age and diseases such as diabetes can cause it to lose that transparency and become opaque. This is how cataracts appear.
The main symptoms of cataracts are blurred vision, difficulty seeing in low lighting, and loss of brightness and contrast of objects and colors. Falls make us see as if we were behind a foggy window.
When cataracts decrease vision, surgery is necessary. During the surgical procedure, the lens is removed and replaced with an artificial one known as an intraocular lens.
Let's learn more about the most common diseases:
WATERFALLS
We all have a natural lens inside the eye called the crystalline lens. Its name is due to its transparency. Thanks to it, we are able to focus clearly when looking at different distances.
With age this lens becomes opaque due to natural causes, generating a decrease in the quality and quantity of vision. Other causes of opaqueness are trauma, congenital alterations, metabolic diseases such as diabetes or chronic consumption of medications such as corticosteroids.
Any opacity in the lens is known as a cataract and its only treatment is surgery, in which the opaque lens is removed and replaced with an acrylic lens that will be housed in the place where the cataract was and will be there. (inside the eye) for life.
PRESBYOPIA
In order to focus on close objects, the human eye automatically changes the magnification of the inner lens of the eye (called the crystalline lens) in a process called accommodation.
After the age of 40, there is a decrease in the elasticity of the lens, which causes this ability to see nearby objects clearly to decrease. This natural process, called presbyopia, occurs with age in all people, although in some it may occur a little later.