Deformation can occur in many parts of our body, particularly in our eyes, with advancing age. Diseases occurring with aging can also create a risk of visual loss. Operator Dr. Seda Mütevelli from Dünya Eye Hospital Ankara who has stated that eye diseases should be early diagnosed and treated accordingly, explains the most common eye diseases in old ages.
Risk of blindness is increasing in old ages
Especially after the age of 40, the more common vision problems can go up to blindness if they are not to be treated. Operator Dr Seda Mütevelli who has indicated that eye is the most important sense organ in maintaining a healthy and functional life, continued her words as follows. “Eye is the most effected sense organ by the aging process. Age-related eye diseases usually start sneakingly. Progressing quite slowly, the treatment of these diseases, which can have very serious consequences, may not be possible, especially in later stages. For this reason, early diagnosis and related treatment is very important in order to have eye tests frequently and to minimize the damage caused by diseases” she said.
Deterioration of eyesight health in old age can lead to different diseases
Presbyopia: In this disease, which means the deterioration of near vision due to advancing age, the lens which is transformable and located in our eyes, becomes unable to change its shape at all. Therefore, those who have this disease have difficulty in seeing the objects when they bring them closer than 50 cm. Presbyopia can be treated with intraocular lens operations and presbylasic laser applied in all over the world.
Cataract: Cataract, one of the most common visual diseases in the world, causes serious visual loss. This disease, which manifests itself with the appearance of whiteness in the middle of the eye lens, is often seen not only in the elderly, but also in young people. Cataract, which affects the person’s everyday life quality very negatively, is manifested by symptoms such as foggy vision, glare, and double vision, loss of gloss, light sensitivity, and very frequent eye degree change. Nowadays, cataract treatment can be performed with local anaesthesia with a 15 – 20 minute operation.
Glaucoma: Glaucoma is known as the high eye tension between the population and it is the type of disease seen in about 70 million patients in the world. It is a disease that develops when intraocular pressure is high enough to adversely affect the normal functions of the optic nerve head. The most important thing about early diagnosis of glaucoma which is the eye disease, which is lost due to lost eyesight, cannot be gained again. This disease, which is usually caused by eye tension, causes damage to the visual nerve. The eye pressure causes the fluid and pressure in the eye to be more than normal, and it destroys the vision nerve. Although it is impossible to heal the nerve of the eye due to glaucoma, the treatment of the disease can be prevented by the help of doctors.
Eye Dryness (xerophthalmia): Tear is the most important element for easy eye movement, cleansing and moisturizing due to environmental factors as well. Lack of adequate tears causes the formation of complaints such as stinging, burning, itching and redness in the eyes. Tear quality is very low in elderly patients because eye problems are much more related to age. Drugs and drugs used under the supervision of the doctor can increase the level of tears or surgical treatment of tear dryness can be treated for sure.
Eye disorders caused by aging can lead to blindness
Presbyopia, cataract, glaucoma and eye dryness, especially in the elder years, negatively affect the daily lives of people. Operator Dr Seda Mütevelli has indicated that eye diseases caused by various factors may cause permanent vision problems unless they are early diagnosed at all. And continued as follows; “The eye, which is normally an extremely sensitive organ, becomes more sensitive in old age. The progressive age-related eye diseases cannot be understood by the people in the initial phase, but they become irreversible even if they become noticeable later on. Presbyopia, cataract, glaucoma and eye dryness which are seen in the elderly often, the result of these kind of disorders can go up to blindness. In order not to encounter such results, regular eye examinations of the patients are very important for the prevention of eye health damage that will occur with early diagnosis” she said.
