Q. What can I do to prevent my child suffering from myopia?
A. It's a fact that many children become myopia when they start attending schools with an increased NEAR VISUAL TASKS. As myopia is strongly linked with genetic influence, a child is also predisposed to myopia if parents are myopic. Proper use of the eyes is therefore essential in helping to prevent the development of this prevalent defective vision. 

The followings are good visual habits to prevent over stress of the eyes: 

• Reading and near works should be done at a distance of about 40cm from the eyes.

• Doing near visual works under proper lighting and to avoid shadow on the reading materials or reflection from them.

• Illumination from a 60W tungsten table lamp coupled with a ceiling fluorescent lighting provides a more natural illumination for reading and near works indoors

• Maintain a proper posture with your back straight and neck relaxed when reading or doing closed works.

• Take a break of 5 to 10 minutes after every hour of reading or closed works and do "distance gazing". The eyes are relaxed when viewing distance objects.

• Don't lie down to read. The illumination is often poor and the reading materials often too close to the eyes.

• Maintaining at least 3 meters away from the TV set when watching TV programs with a correct viewing angle.

When using computer:

• Position the monitor at a distance 50 - 60 cm from your eyes, and the top of the monitor below eye level. Avoiding glare and reflection from the screen. 

• Adjust the brightness and contrast to a comfortable level. High contrast and medium brightness is best for most people.

• Keep your back straight and neck relaxed.

• Take 5 - 10 minutes of breaks to relax your eyes for every hour of works. 

Besides prevent to over stress your eyes, wearing Rigid Contact Lenses appears to be effective to retard the progression of myopia. 

Wearing bifocal, progressive power lenses, or atropine eye drops is also effective in reducing progression of myopia in some children. 

There are several myopic-control products available in the market, unfortunately, they are not scientifically proven to be effective. 

Q. What is night blindness?
A. This is a condition of the eye unable to see under reduced illumination. Lack of Vitamin A is the most common cause of this condition in the poor countries. Some eye diseases affecting the rod shape cells in the retina also result night blindness. Congenital night blindness is rare. 

Q. What is night myopia?
A. This is a condition of the eye which cannot see well at long distances in low illumination, such as driving at night. It's a myopic condition induced from complex optical factors as a result of dilatation of the pupil and reaction in the focusing mechanism of the eye. This problem can be alleviated by appropriately increased the correcting power to be used in the low illumination. 

Q. I don't feel any eye discomfort when in the bright sun, do I need a sunglass?
A. There are medical reasons to wear a good sunglass (not necessary "branded" or expensive), not only for fashion but to protect the eyes from UV rays. Excessive exposure to the UV rays have been linked to skin cancer and certain eye diseases, such as pterygium, corneal damage, cataract and retinal degeneration. Most of the plastic lenses, whether with or without power, can be coated with 100% UV protection. 

Q. When should I have my eyes check-up?
A. Generally, it's advisable to have the eyes check-up once annually. This is particularly important for preschool children as high myopia, hypermetropia or astigmatism can lead to strabismus (squint) or amblyopia (lazy eye), which can be prevented if detected and corrected early before a child is 6 years old. 

Q. Should I wear my spectacle constantly?
A. If you are over 6 years old and without any symptom on performing visual tasks, it's all right to put on your spectacle whenever you need it. However, it's rather dangerous when you are driving or carry out certain activities with poor vision. If you are under 6 years old, it's advisable to wear the spectacle constantly, unless your refractive error is mild. 

Q. Should I regularly "update" my spectacle power for 6/6 vision?
A. Your practitioner is trained to prescribe the appropriate correction which meets your daily visual needs best. Different people have different visual needs and different tolerance to the correction. 

In most cases, full correction is prescribed for best comfortable vision. For certain cases, the correction may be deliberately under corrected to aid tolerance, and then gradually strengthened over a period of months, if desired. Your practitioner may also prescribe slightly under powered (myopic) correction if your activities involved mainly near works. 

Q. What is a cataract and how does it affect the vision?
A. The human crystalline lens is a clear, flexible substance in the normal eye. It is situated just behind the pupil and constitute one of the main elements that focus incident light onto the retina. 

A cataract means the clouding or opacification of the crystalline lens which in most cases is due to aging. When a cataract is formed, the incident light become scattered or blocked, causing blur images on the retina hence poor vision. 

In early stage, cataract often accompanied with a myopic shift (an increase in myopia or decrease in hypermetropia) which also result poor vision, but vision may be improved for a period of time by fitting with appropriate spectacle correction. However, the best result is through surgery removal of the clouding lens and implant an IOL (intra-ocular lens).