The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Red dot is fuzzy and out of focus? Eye problems?

kwich · March 16, 2013, 05:35 PM

Lots of poor info in this thread. If your red dot is fuzzy and you are younger than, say, early 40's, you have an uncorrected refractive error - farsighted (hyperopia), nearsighted (myopia), or astigmatism. Any one of these is simply a matter of the size and shape of your eye, which stays stable after about your late teens or so. Astigmatism means your eye is not round (spherical) like a baseball, it's more like a sideways football, with a steeper curve and a more gradual curve. That "football" can be rotated 360 degrees, so the axis can be any where from 1-180 (0=180, you don't need to specify further, since 1= 181, etc.) Sorry, sweet shooter, your method would only (maybe) identify a vertical or horizontal astigmatism. Anyone who currently drives legally without correction who saw a doc who suggested LASIK should run, not walk from that shyster. Everyone loses near focusing ability as they age -early to mid 40's. That's due to a stiffening of the lens within the eye -same one eventually gets cloudy, that's a cataract. Bottom line - get a complete eye exam from an optometrist, including a complete dilated retinal exam. Any eye doc who practices standard of care should be doing a complete vision AND ocular health evaluation for a first time patient. You don't need or want an ocular surgeon (ophthalmologist) if you don't need surgery. Ask friends or co-workers with glasses or contact lenses who they recommend - some practice will keep being mentioned. When you make your appointment, you could ask if the doc shoots, nothing wrong with that. Hope this clears up some common misconceptions. (Hey, it's health care, take care of yourself!)

March 16, 2013, 05:35 PM	#28
kwich Junior Member Join Date: August 25, 2011 Posts: 14	from an optometrist- Lots of poor info in this thread. If your red dot is fuzzy and you are younger than, say, early 40's, you have an uncorrected refractive error - farsighted (hyperopia), nearsighted (myopia), or astigmatism. Any one of these is simply a matter of the size and shape of your eye, which stays stable after about your late teens or so. Astigmatism means your eye is not round (spherical) like a baseball, it's more like a sideways football, with a steeper curve and a more gradual curve. That "football" can be rotated 360 degrees, so the axis can be any where from 1-180 (0=180, you don't need to specify further, since 1= 181, etc.) Sorry, sweet shooter, your method would only (maybe) identify a vertical or horizontal astigmatism. Anyone who currently drives legally without correction who saw a doc who suggested LASIK should run, not walk from that shyster. Everyone loses near focusing ability as they age -early to mid 40's. That's due to a stiffening of the lens within the eye -same one eventually gets cloudy, that's a cataract. Bottom line - get a complete eye exam from an optometrist, including a complete dilated retinal exam. Any eye doc who practices standard of care should be doing a complete vision AND ocular health evaluation for a first time patient. You don't need or want an ocular surgeon (ophthalmologist) if you don't need surgery. Ask friends or co-workers with glasses or contact lenses who they recommend - some practice will keep being mentioned. When you make your appointment, you could ask if the doc shoots, nothing wrong with that. Hope this clears up some common misconceptions. (Hey, it's health care, take care of yourself!)