Glasses impair vision?

Some people prefer to wear glasses from time to time. This is due to different reasons: someone is uncomfortable in them, someone is laughed at, someone does not like his face framed by glasses. However, the question does not only concern aesthetics and comfort. Many people hold the view that glasses worsen vision if they are worn regularly.

In 2013, the results of a study in Nigeria were published. Almost 65% of students participating in the survey believed that glasses hurt the health of the eyes. In Pakistan, a similar opinion is held by 69% of the population, in the Indian state of Karnataka - 30%. In Brazil, even doctors think so. Is there a reason for such a point of view?

People have to wear glasses mainly because of two reasons - hyperopia and myopia. The first pathology in most cases is caused by age-related changes. At the age of 40-50 many people notice a deterioration in vision, difficulty in reading, for example, in low light. The aging process affects the state of the lens of the eye, making it less elastic, making it difficult to refocus when the distance to the object changes. You have to buy reading glasses, when you can not allow your hands to move the book or menu away from the eyes to the required distance.

Oddly enough, the results and consequences of long-term wearing glasses are poorly understood. According to available information, wearing glasses for reading does not affect the eyesight. Why are so many people convinced of the opposite?

We can assume that the dependence on glasses increases with time, because the lens is increasingly degraded. People often turn to glasses, concluding that they are the cause of visual impairment, despite the fact that such a causal relationship is absent.

From a long-term perspective, it does not matter whether a person wears glasses or not. However, if he strains his eyes in the process of reading, there may be a headache or discomfort in the eyes.

Do vision impairments worsen? The problem of correct adjustment

When we turn to children, the question will be different. If parents in childhood to a child incorrectly pick up glasses or not pick up at all, there will necessarily be consequences.

For a long time it was believed that with shortsightedness, it is more advantageous to wear weaker glasses, since the lengthening of the eyeball and, consequently, the deterioration of vision will be slower. The explanation was the following argument: when a person wears glasses selected according to the recipe, then when focusing on a nearby object, the eyeball will try to stretch, and this is to be prevented.

The results of a study conducted in Malaysia in 2002 demonstrated the fallacy of this hypothesis. It involved 94 children diagnosed with myopia, they were divided into 2 groups. In one group, the children were selected glasses according to the recipe, in the other group - weaker than necessary. At the very beginning of the study, the age of the children was from nine to fourteen. For two years, the length of the eyeballs was measured after certain intervals. The study showed a worsening of vision and a greater lengthening of the eyeball in children who wore weaker glasses.

Published in 2011 Cochrane review (these surveys are prepared by the international public association of highly qualified doctors - Cochrane Collaboration) studies of children diagnosed with "myopia" concluded that it is good to wear suitable, not weaker glasses.

Recently published, the longest in the history of the twenty-three-year study of progressive myopia speaks about the opposite fact. In 1983, in Finland, the study involved several groups of shortsighted children, divided by several features. The group where the children read without glasses showed the weakest results, the deterioration in sight occurred more intensively than those who constantly wore glasses. Three years later, all children were given recommendations to wear glasses constantly. At the age of 20 years, there were no differences between the groups.

According to the well-known ophthalmologist, glasses that are correctly selected can not harm the health of the eyes.

The obvious fact for everyone is why a child with poor eyesight should wear glasses. Because His eyes are also subject to the learning process, the lack of properly selected glasses can cause the development of amblyopia, the so-called "lazy eye", since the retina lacked the experience of obtaining a clear and accurate image. Moreover, they found that the glasses matched to the prescription increase the reading speed and reduce the likelihood of strabismus.

But let us turn to the adults. This area is poorly understood. It turned out that no one has conducted such studies so far.

According to the surgeon of the Morfield Ophthalmologic Hospital in London, Professor Anant Viswanathan, there are no studies, as there are no physiological reasons to think that glasses impair vision.