Eyes: Optometrist harps on regular checks

Eyes: Optometrist harps on regular checks
By Lydia Ngwakwe
Glaucoma
Lagos, March 14, 2018 (NAN) An Optometrist, Dr Marigold Oki, has advised Nigerians not to wait until they got symptoms showing they would soon lose their sight before going for check up.
Oki gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday at a one-day Glaucoma awareness talk organised for Women of the Church of Christ, Jakande Estate, Oki-Afa, Isolo.
Oki said glaucoma was often called the “silent thief of sight’’ because it has no symptoms, it is painless and can go undetected until it is too late.
“Thankfully we are in glaucoma week; glaucoma being asymptomatic, one cannot know when he or she have glaucoma without going to run an eye test; now you have an avenue to check your eye.
“You have a right to sight; so all you have to do is to work into an eye clinic, tell them you want to have a glaucoma check and that will be it.
“Do not wait until glaucoma has taken your sight because it has a subtle way of getting into the eye, it is very different from cataract where you notice that your vision is reducing.
“With glaucoma you start losing vision from the periphery; and people rarely on check their peripheral vision. Most of us are losing our peripheral vision without knowing that we are losing it,’’ Oki said.
She therefore advised people who have never checked their eyes to do so at least for the first time, adding that after checking, the subsequent eye test would depend on what would be discovered.
According to her, if a person’s eye is fine; such a one can have his eyes checked yearly.
Oki said glaucoma was a disease that was found at the back of the eye (optic nerve) and as such it was difficult for one to look at a person’s eye and say such a person has glaucoma.
She stressed that it was only an eye doctor that could see that a person has glaucoma.
She said anybody could have glaucoma, even a new born baby (congenital glaucoma), adding that there is really no known cause for which one could prevent the disease from.
She said: “The earlier you have glaucoma, the riskier and the more likelihood you are going to lose your sight.
“If you are born with glaucoma and it starts manifesting, most times before you get to age five, you might lose your sight.
“So we work with risk factors; when we talk about risk factors, some risks are more predisposed to having glaucoma than others like when we look at the black risk we are more predisposed to having primary open glaucoma.’’
NAN reports that glaucoma is not just one eye disease, but a group of eye conditions resulting in optic nerve damage, which causes loss of vision.
It usually causes abnormally high pressure inside the eye (intraocular pressure), but not always, causes this damage.
World Glaucoma week is being observed from March 11 to March 17, annually. (NAN)
LED/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola