When glasses are no longer enough...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around one million people in Germany suffer from visual impairment. According to the legal definition, your vision is less than 30% of normal vision, despite optimally adjusted glasses.
There are many causes for a visual impairment defined in this way. The most common cause is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease of the retina of the eye (diabetic retinopathy) usually caused by diabetes, as well as other eye diseases such as retinal detachment, cataracts and glaucoma. Visual impairment can affect anyone. However, it mainly occurs in old age.
What can you do? Of course, it is best if the underlying disease can be treated and vision can regenerate. If this is not possible, magnifying visual aids often help to see better despite reduced vision.
What are magnifying visual aids?
Magnifying visual aids are all optical and electronic aids that compensate for the loss of visual acuity by magnifying the retinal images. Most visually impaired people would like to receive assistance with reading by means of a magnifying visual aid. Here the optician offers different types of magnifying glasses. There are simple hand magnifying glasses in a round shape and with different viewing diameters and magnification effects to view individual objects. When you're on the go, it's better to use a version in credit card format with a practical hard cover or even with lighting.
Which visual aid for which purpose?
If you often want to read longer texts, the rectangular shape of the reading glasses is recommended. The following must be taken into account for all types of magnifying glasses: the higher the magnification, the smaller the diameter of the optical lens and thus the usable field of view will be. The limitation caused by this physical-optical law can be easily overcome with aspheric or aplanatic reading glasses. Due to the distortion-free imaging properties that extend to the edge of the lens, these magnifying glasses are particularly suitable for users with loss of central vision.
Other commonly used types are stand magnifiers and magnifying lamps, each of which comes in different sizes and with different optical strengths. With some variants, for example, you can edit the object you are viewing by hand at the same time. Other variants offer a comfortable sitting and posture to enable working or reading for longer periods of time without fatigue.
Some of these magnifying visual aids are also used in everyday life, even though there is no visual impairment. For example, doctors sometimes need special, high-quality magnifying glasses. For use in leisure time, for hobbies or at work, head and front magnifiers are ideal. New technologies, as known from other product areas, are also used in magnifying visual aids. LED lighting combined with electronic components and precision optics ensures brilliant vision.
Do you need an extra large field of view? Very bright, glare-free lighting? Easy operation and settings? Finding the right product is apparently not that easy. Thanks to his expertise and experience, your optician will be happy to advise you comprehensively and show you various options to achieve the optimal visual result. Conclusion: It should always be remembered that an ophthalmologist must carry out a precise clarification of the causes of a visual impairment and its treatment options. This is followed by a detailed examination of the various possible uses of magnifying visual aids by the optician. With the right magnifying visual aid, in many cases a certain amount of quality of life can be restored.
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