NEWS
Children’s eyecare initiative
Polly Dulley is chair of this national group, run by the Optical Confederation. The aim of the group is to improve eyecare for ALL children. This means trying to get the message across to both parents and teachers that eyecare is vital for all children. In the UK, just 53% of children have ever had any kind of eye examination, and this means that one in five children have an undetected vision problem.
Many parents assume that children’ss eyes are still checked at school, but this is simply not the case, in many parts of the UK. They also think that a child will complain if they have a vision problem, but many children don’st realise they have a problem, because they have no idea of what is normal.
So far, Polly has written a letter to the head teachers of 23,000 schools in the UK, asking for help from teachers in encouraging parents to get their children’ss eyes checked, and offering help and resources to improve understanding and knowledge about eyes and eyecare.
Many children who come to Aves already have been used in filming and for interviews in both local and national newspapers, telling their own story of why regular eyecare is so important and how it has changed their lives.
If your children haven’st had an eye examination, book them in today. It’ss free and it might make a huge difference to your child’ss development. Children who can’st see clearly find it more difficult to learn and play!
Prescription Sunglasses
Protecting our eyes from the sun’ss harmful rays is vital. Eye conditions such as cataract and macular degeneration are both more likely in people who don’st protect their eyes from the sun. Aves stock a wide range of both non-prescription and prescription sunglasses. A complete pair of prescription sunglasses costs as little as £99, so do pop in and have a look. Be ready for the sunshine!
How the Human Eye works
The diagram to the right shows the key parts of the human eye.
Imagine the eyeball as a small, hollow ball, measuring approximately 2cm from front to back. The only way that light can enter the eye is through the pupil, a small circular opening in the centre of the iris at the front of the eye. When you look at someone’s eye, the pupil is the small black disc at the centre of the coloured part of the eye, the iris. Tiny muscles in the iris will contract and relax to allow the pupil to change in size and therefore control how much light can enter the eye. On a bright, sunny day you will notice that the pupil is quite small, whilst at night the eye needs as much light as it can get and therefore the pupil is large. In older people the pupil naturally decreases in size and shows less variation in size.
The inner lining of the tough wall of the eye is the retina, a very thin, light-sensitive membrane. The main cavity inside the eye is filled with a clear jelly-like substance called the vitreous, which for much of your life is pushed up against the retina.
As light rays enter the eye, they must be focussed to form an image on the retina. The focussing is done by the cornea and the lens. The lens can change its focussing power by changing shape. This is controlled by a small ring of muscle around the lens. Unfortunately, as we go through life the lens becomes less flexible and so cannot alter its focus. This is why we all develop problems with focussing on objects at different distances and why so many of us require reading glasses in later life.
Six tiny muscles around each eye control the position of the eye and ensure that when you look directly at an object, the image of that object falls onto the special part of the central retina called the fovea or macula. Light falling onto the retina stimulates millions of tiny nerve cells. All of these tiny retinal nerves come together at the back of the eye to form the optic nerve, which carries the image information along to the visual cortex at the back of the brain, allowing you to ‘see’ the image.
YOU SAID IT
"I have been a patient of Aves for some years now and as a local businessman, never fail to marvel at the remarkable mix of professionalism, attention and welcome you get when you enter the practice. I have urged all of our staff to use Aves and benefit from what is a great team of people committed to delivering a fantastic local service."
Mr G.H.
