The Health | april, 2019
16
Highlight: Vision 2020
Have you checked your
eyesight recently?
The Malaysia Optical Council stresses the importance to have
regular eyesight checks and to only go to certified optometrists
H
aving our eyesight checked is perhaps
the single most procrastinated thing
we are guilty of. We could have noticed
that our vision are getting blurry, and
we still would have postponed that
visit to the optometrist.
If this hits home for you, you should stop procrasti-
nating. Delaying your checkup and getting corrective
lenses can put you at risk of other eye related problems
down the line. Additionally, it is also quite important,
once you have decided to go for an eye checkup and get
glasses, to only see a certified optometrist.
The Health caught up with the Secretary for the
Malaysian Optical Council, Nor Azizah Ismail to
know more about the importance of keeping our eyes
healthy.
We at MOC
promote
empowerment to
the public to ask
for certification
from the
optometrist they
are visiting. We
want to ensure
safety and proper
practices are
carried out as a
way to protect
the public from
dangerous side
effects of improper
prescribed
corrective lenses.”
– Nor Azizah
Your kids and
their eyesight
The council for your vision
To start, we take a look at what actually the Malaysian
Optical Council’s (MOC) role is.
“MOC was established under the Ministry of
Health as an authoritative figure to ensure practicing
optometrists in the country are trained and certified.
The Council sets the standard for which optometrists
must abide to, so that the highest possible quality of
service is offered,” Nor Azizah explains.
Besides that, the MOC also oversee the public’s
safety when it comes to eyesight correction services.
“We ensure the public are protected from any malprac-
tices including prescription of corrective spectacles or
contact lens from uncertified optometrists according
to the Optical Laws and Regulations,” she adds.
Certified means safe
A question might arise from the back of our minds,
what would happen if we went to an uncertified optom-
etrist to get our glasses or contact lenses?
To that, Nor Azizah’s message was clear-cut. “An
uncertified optometrist may not have received proper
training, and could therefore prescribe you with the
wrong level of power for your glasses and contact
lenses. This in turn, will worsen your eyesight further
instead of correcting it.”
“We at MOC promote empowerment to the public
to ask for certification from the optometrist they are
T
he Malaysia Optical Council, in accordance with
World Optometry Day celebrated on 23 March,
are spreading the awareness about our children
and their eyesight. Firstly however, let’s understand
why we need glasses.
Why can’t we see
There are a few reasons why our eyesight may get
worse. If you can’t see clearly after a certain distance
away, you are categorised as being near-sighted. If
you are having trouble reading and focusing on what’s
right in front of you, but can still see things far away
clearly, you are what is called long-sighted.
Near-sightedness, or myopia, occurs when the eye
grows too long from front to back. Instead of focusing
images on the retina (the light-sensitive tissue in the
back of the eye), the lens of the eye focuses the image
in front of the retina.
It can also can be the result of a cornea (the eye’s
outermost layer) that is too curved for the length of
the eyeball or a lens that is too thick.
As for long-sightedness, it is a condition where the
curvature of the cornea is flat or the axial length of the
eyeball is short. When light enters the eye, it does not
focus directly on the retina, but focuses beyond the
retina. This causes near images to appear out of focus
and blurred. It is also known as hyperopia.
Generally, myopia is a much more common con-
dition to have among the younger crowd. Whereas
hyperopia is more common among the elderly.
Your kids could already need glasses
Remember when we were little, our mom and dad
would scold us if we watch the TV a little too close?
They would say that our eyes will get damaged, we will
need glasses, or worse, we can go blind!
Although looking at the TV screen too close is
definitely not a healthy habit, we should actually think
why we (and of course our children now) do it.
Nor Azizah Ismail of Malaysia of the Malaysian
Optical Council (MOC) speaks about the counter-
indicator of our children and TV screens. “Instead of
scolding our kids because they watch the screen too
close, we should think about WHY they were looking
at the screen too close in the first place. Most of the
time, it is because they can’t actually see the screen
clearly from afar.”
This indicates that in actuality, our kids may have
already needed glasses even before they started watch-
ing the TV or phone too close.
Get it checked and corrected early
It is important for the parents to identify their
children’s behaviour, and to see whether it can