What are some of the most frustrating moments when wearing glasses?

There are currently about 2.5 billion people with myopia in the world, and as many as 600 million people in China, which means that at least one out of every five people with myopia in the world is Chinese. Experts predict that by 2050, an estimated 5 billion people in the world will be affected by myopia.

As a tool for "restoring vision", glasses are a great invention and a "good helper" that myopic patients always have. However, although humans have gradually been forced to get used to wearing glasses, there are many moments in daily life when people feel frustrated because of wearing glasses. What moments of frustration have you encountered?

01. The moment of collapse when wearing glasses

Only those who have truly experienced the frustration of wearing glasses will understand. The glasses frames worn by celebrities and fashionistas have no heavy lenses, so they can be worn naturally and elegantly, but for those of us who are truly nearsighted, glasses can only drive us crazy. For example:

1. Others get up and say good morning, but I get up and say: Where are my glasses?! At this time, I am like Harry Potter whose glasses have been knocked off, at a loss. The blur in front of my eyes, coupled with the moving alarm clock, is another day suitable for being late.

2. Exercise is "blindness", and we who wear glasses are "unworthy" of doing exercise. In the hot summer, it is a great pleasure to go swimming with a few friends. When I see others not only throwing a ball on the water, but also diving to the bottom of the water to play with their playmates, I can only carefully rub to the edge of the swimming pool because I took off my glasses. I couldn't find the stairs to go down, and I was embarrassed to bend over and circle around to look for it. I had to pretend to be calm, sit down, slowly stretch my legs into the swimming pool, and then slowly slide in. Not to mention playing with a ball in the water, someone threw a ball to me, and I couldn't see where the ball was after it hit my head. I was very embarrassed to look for it everywhere. It felt like others were playing with the ball, but the ball was playing with me.

3. Not only am I "unworthy" of doing exercise, I also dare not "lower my head" at will. When others lower their heads, their crowns will fall off, but when I lower my head, my glasses will definitely fall off. Wearing glasses that have slipped down, I will unconsciously raise my chin to look at people. In addition to giving people the feeling of an old man wearing reading glasses to read a newspaper, it will also "offend" people and easily give the other person the illusion that they are disdainful of looking at them straight in the eye.

4. Others see the foggy scenery, but I see the fog rising from my glasses. In the winter in the north, the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor is very large, which directly leads to the daily breakdown of those who wear glasses. It would be fine if there is no urgent matter, but if you are in a hurry to go to class, punch in at work, or meet a client, the smooth movements will be instantly disturbed by the fog in front of your eyes. At this time, you will think about whether to stop or continue, vividly demonstrating what a dilemma is.

As a veteran glasses wearer, my glasses have left marks on my temples. I can say that I am in a cycle of collapse, self-digestion, and then collapse again every day.

02. What should I do if I am nearsighted?

In fact, more and more people are experiencing the same type of collapse. The number of myopic people is increasing rapidly every year. From elementary school to high school, we can find that the number of students wearing glasses in the class has increased significantly. Statistics also support this observation. The "National Vision Health Big Data Office Report" released by the People's Daily Public Opinion Center in 2019 shows that at present, the number of myopic people in China has reached 600 million, accounting for nearly half of the total population. Among them, the proportion of myopic students has further increased, and the proportion of myopic college students has reached nearly 90% [1].

As we all know, myopia is irreversible, because myopia is actually caused by the lengthening of the eye axis, just like a person cannot shrink back after growing taller. Once myopia occurs, it is impossible to recover or improve. And as the frequency and intensity of eye use increase, the degree of myopia will continue to deepen, thus forming a vicious cycle.

In the Myopia Prevention and Treatment Guidelines issued by the National Health Commission in 2018, corresponding guidance measures were proposed for myopia correction - frame glasses, corneal contact lenses, and surgical correction. This also means that the main ways to correct myopia are currently wearing glasses and surgical correction, and surgery is the only way to remove glasses.

(Screenshot of the Myopia Prevention and Control Guide)

The main surgical correction methods are laser corneal refractive surgery and phakic intraocular lens implantation. In the long-term application and practice, the safety has also been effectively confirmed. Let's talk about the differences between different myopia surgeries.

03. What are the differences between different myopia surgeries?

At present, there are three main types of laser myopia surgery: excimer laser surgery, semi-femtosecond laser surgery and full-femtosecond laser surgery . Their techniques and principles are somewhat similar but also different:

1. Excimer laser surgery is to first cut the cornea with a corneal knife, then use an excimer laser to cut the corneal stroma, and then cover the lifted corneal flap back.

2. Semi-femtosecond laser surgery uses a femtosecond laser to create a corneal flap, and the subsequent operations are the same as those of excimer laser surgery. However, compared with the traditional mechanical lamellar knife method of excimer laser, the corneal flap created by semi-femtosecond laser is more precise and smooth.

3. All-femtosecond laser surgery can be said to have changed the traditional surgical method of making corneal flaps. It creates a micro-mirror-like corneal tissue membrane by starting femtosecond laser scanning twice. The wound is very minimally invasive and recovers very quickly.

04. Can everyone undergo myopia surgery?

Some friends who don’t know much about it may have some concerns when they hear about laser surgery, such as whether the laser will pass through the surface of the eye and damage the retina?

The answer is definitely no. The principle of this type of surgery is to cut corneal tissue to correct myopia. The laser only acts on the surface of the eye and cannot penetrate the cornea, let alone enter the eye to damage the eye structure and tissue, so there is no risk of damaging the retina at all.

Because its good medical effects have been widely clinically verified at home and abroad, and its safety has also been clearly recognized by the country, more and more friends around me have undergone myopia surgery. Even for soldiers and pilots who have extremely high requirements for vision, the five ministries including the State Sports Commission, the Central Military Commission, and the Education Commission have jointly issued a document stating that those who have corrected their vision through myopia surgery can take various exams and serve in the military.

Unfortunately, even though laser corneal refractive surgery has been used for nearly 80 years and the technology is becoming increasingly mature, not everyone can do it. A very comprehensive examination is required before myopia surgery, and surgery can only be performed when it is clear that the eyes are free of any disease. Therefore, you must find a professional and responsible hospital for examination and surgery.

I have also considered myopia surgery and have been interested in it for a long time, but I haven't done it yet. The main reason is my choice of industry. From my doctoral degree to my job, I have been engaged in bioinformatics research, and my main work platform is usually a computer. Basically, I have to stay in front of the computer every day to process data, which is very intensive for my eyes. In this case, I can only give up the surgery temporarily. But if I can step out of the front line of scientific research one day, the first thing I will do is to have myopia correction surgery. After all, I have worn glasses for so many years, and it is time to say goodbye to "old friends".

As I write this, my glasses slipped off my oily nose again. I can only smile bitterly and then push them up. You see, the breakdown of people who wear glasses sometimes comes from many trivial things. But what can I do? I can only continue to love and hate my "old friend". If I have the chance, I really have to try it. I believe that getting up in the morning and welcoming the first ray of sunshine with a clear vision will definitely feel very different from before.

[1] People’s Daily Online Public Opinion Data Center, “National Visual Health Big Data Office Report”

[2] National Health Commission’s “Guidelines for Myopia Prevention and Treatment”