Eye problems can affect your whole life. Depending upon the type of eye problem you have, you can experience variable situations that complicate daily life routines. One of the most commonly affected daily life routines is driving. People struggle with the idea of not being able to drive and often find it difficult to admit that they’re helpless. Most people who have dealt with vision impairment, especially at night, can understand these difficulties. However, it’s crucial to understand that when you’re on the road, even a slight-second complication can risk your life. are always encouraging people to take the initiative to learn about various problems that can cause such a situation. So, let’s discuss some of the most common eye diseases that render you unable to drive:
Cataracts
We all know cataracts to be the gray dense cloud that starts to appear in the eyes of the patients. When proteins in the eye begin to form clumps, it ends up disrupting the communication between the lens and the retina. The result is a blurred or loss of vision as the retina doesn’t successfully convert the light into signals that are coming from the lens.
There are several reasons why people develop cataracts. It might come as a surprise but smoking is one of the most prominent factors that lead up to the development. Moreover, being exposed to ultraviolet radiation for prolonged periods can also produce the same results. The use of steroids or other medications and diseases like diabetes can be influential in bringing cataracts about. Furthermore, suffering traumas or going through radiation therapy can also result in their development.
It’s more common in people of age above ’40s-’50s and it’s a condition that doesn’t affect both eyes simultaneously. However, if left untreated, it can end up affecting both eyes and result in total vision loss as well.
The only way to treat the disease is through cataract surgery. There is a total of 7 types of cataracts:
- Nuclear Cataracts
- Cortical Cataracts
- Posterior Cataracts
- Congenital Cataracts
- Secondary Cataracts
- Traumatic Cataracts
- Radiation Cataracts
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in people that have age 60 or above. It’s a series of conditions of the eye that end up damaging the optic nerve. The optic nerve is responsible for sending the visual data to the brain. Therefore, once it’s damaged during glaucoma, mostly due to extreme pressures in the eye, loss of vision is inevitable. And when you have reached that point, there’s nothing that can be done.
The worst thing about the disease is that it mostly gives no warning signs at the early stages. You might not even feel a slight variation in your vision until it reaches an advanced stage. The only way to avoid losing your vision is to get your eyesight checked by a glaucoma specialist in Dubai at regular intervals. Unless it’s diagnosed at an early stage, you can’t hope to get treated. With early diagnosis, it’s possible to prevent or slow the vision loss.
There are various types of Glaucoma but we categorize them as either Open-angle or Acute angle-closure Glaucoma. The symptoms for the former include blind spots in your peripheral or central vision in the form of patches that occur frequently in both eyes. When it reaches an advanced stage, it can result in tunnel vision.
Acute angle-closure Glaucoma symptoms include severe headache accompanied by eye pain, blurred vision, nausea, and vomiting. Moreover, one can also experience halos around the lights they see along with redness in the eyes.
Since this disease is hard to spot and diagnose, you must get a specialist to check your eyes regularly. Although it is mostly found in old people, those between the ages of 40-50 can also fall victim. In any case, glaucoma treatment can last for the rest of your life.
Macular Degeneration
Macular Degeneration is a disease that also has a lot to do with old age and thus, is often called age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This disease occurs in patients when the macula wears down. The macula is the central part of the retina which is the organ responsible for sensing light and is present at the back of the eye.
Macular Degeneration has other variants that affect children and young adults as well. These variations are known as Stargardt disease or juvenile macular degeneration. There are two major types of this disease, i.e. dry form or wet form.
The dry form comes with symptoms like the presence of drusen in the macula. These are yellow deposits that don’t generally cause vision problems in small amounts but may dim or distort vision once the numbers get high. With the worsening condition, light-sensitive cells in the macula can get thinner and even die out.
The wet form of the disease is often accompanied by symptoms such as the growth of blood vessels beneath the macula. These blood vessels end up leaking blood in the retina. This causes vision distortion to the point that even straight lines look wavy and curved. Patients can experience blind spots and lose central vision. The bleeding can result in scarring that results in permanent loss of central vision as well.
Prevention and Precaution
The only way to save yourself from hazardous situations is, to be honest with yourself. People don’t admit when they experience difficulties while driving for various reasons. However, even if you’re driving alone, you’re not putting just your life at risk.
One way to make sure that you’re okay to drive is to take your car out at dusk or dawn and drive around. Unless you see everything from bumps in the road to the signs on the side, you shouldn’t risk it.
Finally, try getting a regular eye exam to make sure that all problems are spotted at the earliest.
