Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Sometimes in their life, many people come to realize that they can not read the price tag on a shop window, or thread a needle or when looking at the night sky, they feel that the stars decreas one by one.

The glasses come into our life as soon as a vision problem occurs. Many people are afraid of wearing glasses, attaching great importance to their appearance. So, they resort to contact lenses - They seem a good alternative to glasses.

A contact lens, or simply contact, is a thin lens placed directly on the surface of the eye. Contact lenses are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, or for cosmetic or therapeutic reasons. In 2010, worldwide contact lens market was estimated at $6.1 billion.

Despite the fact that contact lenses are very popular among those who do not want or for some reason can not wear glasses, ophthalmologists detected recently the negative consequences associated with improper use of contact lenses.

It is advised not to wear lenses longer than eight hours a day, but many people do not adhere to this rule and wear lenses much longer than specified time.

Thus, the 33-years-old fashion designer from London, Aimee McWilliams also considered this rule a formality, and was able to walk in the lenses for 14 hours a day, until she went to the optometrist for a routine inspection. The woman was shocked to learn that she almost lost sight completely.

"I was horrified," Aimee told Daily Mail. "I'd always worn my lenses from 7AM until nearly midnight. Nobody had told me that I was jeopardizing my sight by wearing them for so long, though I suppose I just said I used them daily."

"What frightened me even more was that there had been no signs anything was wrong - my eyes looked the same. And I'd delayed my annual check-up by several weeks because I was so busy and I didn't think I really needed one," she added.

The fact that the cornea is the only part of the body which is not fed with oxygen from the blood, but directly from the air. Prolonged use of lenses leads to hypoxia and this problem is mainly not palpable, as it can be detect only by optometrist using a special microscope and other equipment.

If the cornea has not enough oxygen, the body tries to deal with it itself, thus corneal blood vessels appear in the cornea. As a result of appearing of blood vessels of retina the cornea may become opaque, and people lose sight.

This process can take several years, but when a person feel the pain in the eyes or notice redness it may be too late.

As for Aimee, she feels she has had a lucky escape. She was advised by her optician to stop wearing her lenses immediately - and for good. Once she stopped, within a few months the tiny blood vessels had collapsed and were no longer a threat to her vision. But she struggled wearing glasses - after years of wearing lenses they made her feel dizzy when she glanced to the side - and she decided to have laser treatment to correct her vision.

"Now I have 20/20 vision, but I still shudder to think I could have ended up losing my sight simply from wearing my contact lenses for much too long every day," she said.

Doctors recommend using the new silicone hydrogen lenses that are breathable. Using this type of lenses blind risk becomes much less.

Statistics confirm that more than 50 percent of the Earth population have a weak eyesight. Earlier fix this flaw could only with glasses. Earlier this defect could be corrected only by using glasses. Glasses with lenses, according to historians were invented in Italy in the 13th century. Of course, then nobody thought about lenses or glasses better corrects vision, as there was no such a choice.

Since then glasses have changed and improved a lot. Using high technology even very poor vision can be corrected with the help of optical glasses of small thickness. Moreover, there is a huge choice of beautiful and stylish spectacle frames, whereby glasses turned into quite attractive and fashionable accessory.

Well-chosen glasses are able to change face to a better, hiding some of its flaws and highlighting the advantages.

However, the choice is yours - to wear comfortable glasses, or to risk your eyesight for the sake of beauty.