Vision Life Cycle
Eye Health for a Lifetime
You can't watch a child grow up without realizing the tremendous changes that a body undergoes as it ages. But how about your eyes? Do they grow and age like the rest of your body?
Yes, they do. At birth, newborns can only distinguish bright colors and bold, contrasting patterns. As children age, the front of their eyes grow too, gradually flattening to focus light on the retina. Elementary age children are often slightly farsighted. Changes in the length of the eye happen during youth. In some children, this can result in nearsightedness. Nearsightedness can progress until growth stops in early adulthood.
For most of us, vision peaks in our mid to late 20s. During this time, night vision, eye-hand coordination, motion and depth perception, and color discrimination may all improve.
But by our late 30s, the ciliary muscles that adjust the thickness of our lens starts to weaken. That affects our ability to see things close by. This condition, known as presbyopia, hits most people somewhere between the age of 35 and 45. Even those who have enjoyed uncorrected vision to this point find themselves needing reading glasses.
During our mid-40s, the iris muscles tend to slow. The reflex response decreases, increasing the amount of light entering the eye. For many people, sensitivity to glare starts at this age.
As your eye ages, you also become more likely to suffer from other eye diseases, such as cataracts and glaucoma. Relatively minor concerns like dry eye and floaters can also occur. Many illnesses show early signs in the eyes, including hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and multiple sclerosis. Early detection is often critical to successful treatment.
At Doctors Vision Center, we think of your eyes as windows to your health. We want to give you the best vision you can have today, as well as protecting your health for the long term.
Childhood
From the time we are born to about 8 years of age, our eyeballs undergo remarkable changes. Normally, as the front of the eye grows, it flattens, which sends images deeper inside the eye. If the eye grows as it should, light will converge on the retina. But if the convergence is off by even a hair's breadth, vision will be blurred.
Most preschool and elementary school children are slightly farsighted. This lessens as children grow, usually stabilizing by adolescence.
During these years of growth, the eye senses where images are focusing and compensates accordingly. If light is converging in front of the retina, the eye will stop growing longer until images catch up to the retina. If the focus is behind the eye, it will grow longer at a remarkable rate, pushing the retina further from the source of light until images can be focused. The eyes are generally able to maintain clear focus throughout childhood even though the size of the eyeballs is continually changing.
The ability to see in three dimensions, stereoscopic vision, is usually fully developed by the age of 6 or 7.
Adulthood
The human eye reaches peak strength in the young adult, around the mid- to late-20s. This strength involves many abilities not measured by eye charts. Night vision, eye-hand coordination, motion and depth perception, and color discrimination may all improve during this time. During the years of increasing visual abilities, nutrition is essential for optimum vision development.
By the time we reach our mid- to late-30s, it may begin to be difficult to focus on close objects. The ciliary muscles that adjust the thickness of the lens start to weaken. Meanwhile, the lens itself loses its elasticity. Consequently, the ability of lens to focus at close range decreases. Most people notice signs of "aging eyes," or presbyopia, around the age of 40 to 45, when they begin holding reading material at arms' length. You will probably need to wear reading glasses, bifocals, or multifocal glasses or contact lenses to correct your vision at this stage. The condition will usually stabilize by the age of 65 or 70 but may progress indefinitely.
During our mid-40s, the iris muscles tend to slow. The reflex response decreases, increasing the amount of light entering the eye. For many people, sensitivity to glare starts at this age. Their eyes may be overexposed to the sun and other UV light, potentially causing permanent damage. Eyewear with ultraviolet radiation protection can shield the eyes from the harmful rays.
Seniors
Some vision changes are a normal part of aging. Others may be warning signs of other diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes, both common in older adults. Common occurrences during the elder years include:
• stabilization of presbyopia
• development of cataracts
• increase in spots, floaters and flashes
• onset of glaucoma
• incidence of dry eye
• disease, infection or injury of the cornea
• retinal disorders
