Kids, seniors need good eye care
By Brad Elkins Special to the Acorn

Whether a person is young or old, good eyesight is vital to a happy and productive life. It's important that the eyes receive proper care and maintenance.

Prevent Blindness America, the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization, has designated August as "Children's Eye and Safety Month" as well as "Cataract Awareness Month." The College of Optometrists in Vision Development, an international nonprofit association composed of eye care professionals, has designated August as "Children's Vision and Learning Month." The message seems to be twofold: for children, healthy eyes and good vision are not only vital to their ability to see but also their ability to learn and function in today's society. For senior citizens, the modern technology will enable them to live more enjoyable and productive lives.

Children: protecting the eyes

There are numerous disorders that should and can be detected if parents understand the warning signs- for example, white pupil instead of black, and "lazy eye" or "wandering eye." Maladies include strabismus, amblyopia, opaque cornea.

Respected health organizations now warn that good eyesight in children is directly linked to their ability to learn. The American Public Health Association points out that 25 percent of students in kindergarten through sixth grade have visual problems serious enough to impede learning. There are also reports that 60 percent of children with learning disabilities have undiagnosed vision problems. Early detection of eye problems is paramount.

Seniors: restoring the eyes

Modern technology has enabled seniors to discover a "whole new world" of eyesight. Seniors are not content to go "quietly into the night." They want to be active and productive as long as they can. In the 1960s, cataracts were removed in surgery only if the eye was completely blind. Surgery was long and complicated, and patients had to stay in the hospital two weeks, often with their heads held in place by sandbags.

Today, only a 10minute painless procedure is required, with full functioning afterward. In the 1970s, unsightly eyeglasses were replaced by special lens implants, which can correct astigmatism and can even lessen the need for reading glasses altogether. With the advent of LASIK surgery, which is very popular in the United States because of its safety and accuracy, older patients want to now "throw away their glasses" as well. Some patients who were not considered good LASIK candidates for reasons such as "dry eye" or too high a prescription are now electing to solve their dependency on both distance and reading glasses with a procedure called "refractive lens exchange."

While being attentive to the health and welfare of your eyes and those you are responsible for is a year-round responsibility, it would be good this month to ensure that you are meeting that commitment.

For children, it could "light their way" to the future. For seniors, it could recapture the vision they thought they had lost. For everyone else, it is a wise investment in helping you lead a fuller and more productive life.

Dr. Brad Elkins specializes in LASIK and cataract surgery and is a partner in Ophthalmology Associates of the Valley. An author and lecturer, Elkins also is a clinical instructor of ophthalmology for the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA.