OT: DVLA

[Harry Bloomfield]

Max Demian wrote on 05/04/2019 :

Thanks, no point now then. My eyes were perfect until I hit my 50's.

[Steve Walker]

a) you can probably just be tested at an optician the next day and not need to go back to hospital at all and then simply resume driving when you know you are okay (many other conditions rely on you simply refraining from driving while you are impaired and you only need to notify the DVLA if it is long term). b) no paperwork required rather than having your licence suspended and having to go through a the whole rigmarole of getting it back, which with typical DVLA speed, could take months and could be a big problem for someone who needs to drive.

They don't need to administer the eyesight test at all if the driver is complaining that their sight has been affected by the crash - they do need to get them to a hospital urgently.

Once they have suspended your licence, you only get it back through the DVLA.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

I don't think the DVLA are notified (and neither are you required to notify them) of any defect of vision that can be corrected with glasses or contacts. You are just required to wear them if you can't meet the basic requirements without them.

SteveW

[Bob Eager]

I just keep a monocle in my pocket.

[Bob Eager]

I've been trying to get hold of a Mad Eye Moody eye!

But I do have this:

[Tim Streater]

I didn't need glasses at all until I was 40-ish, then started finding close-up stuff harder and harder. Been using varifocals for the last 33 years.

Now, due to the incipient cataracts, my prescription is changing like gang-busters. I've gone from being slightly long-sighted to being quite short-sighted in about two years. Not much point in getting new glasses until this settles down or I get my eyes done. Meanwhile, I am from time to time getting new distance lenses (about -1 to -2 dioptres) every six months or so for driving or TV, and using any old now-useless VF's I have kicking around for other uses.

Meaning I have to fart around with two pairs of glasses, which is a SHIITY BORE since Murphy moves them around behind my back while I'm not looking.

[Tim Streater]

You are Mad Eye Moody AICMFP.

[Tim Streater]

Exactly. Get up in the morning, put the glasses on, and forget about them until you go to bed.

[Dave Liquorice]

rather

No the problem that laser eye surgery sorts out is the focus point generated by the cornea and lens being in front (near-sight, myopia) or behind (far-sight, hyperopia) the retina. The surgery reshapes the curvature of the cornea to make the focus point coincide with the retina. The lens is still flexible and it can be squidged to bring close things into focus.

Presbyopia is hardening of the lens which stops, in people with otherwise normal vision, being able to focus on close objects. Or if like me with -5 ish of myopia, I have a region about an inch deep at

8" ish from my eyes that is in focus unaided. Anything nearer or further away is out of focus.

Laser surgery can't help with this. You need to pop the lens out and replace it with a nice squishy one. I think that is an option for cateract surgery.

[Dave Liquorice]

Hold the book lower and just look down...

I have varifocals don't have any problems with them. First time I put a pair on and turned my head was a bit "whoo hooo whats happening to the world" but it didn't last long and disappeared after a few hours. Same with the barrel distortion and the ground being further away than it looked. These are relatively strong prescription at -5 ish, using high refractive index glass. Perhaps the fact I've been wearing glasses to correct myopia for the last 50+ years means my brain is used to processing out such distortions.

[dennis]

I don't think the lenses used will allow the muscles to change their shape. Most people that have new lenses have their distance vision corrected and then need reading specs. I suppose it may be possible to use lenses with multiple focus points like the "varifocal" contact lenses but I don't know of anyone with them. They reduce the contrast in the image so behave a bit like the cataracts being removed.

[Andy Burns]

Nature was expecting you to be dead by then ;-)

[Tim Streater]

Oh. I thought the lens after cataract surgery was inflexible, and designed to focus at infinity. Then, any remaining issues are fixed with glasses; I shall be getting more varifocals.

SWMBO has just got varifocals and loves them. Without any correction, her focal point is juts a few inches, so she's always worn bottle-bottoms, or contacts.

[Tim Streater]

You are Lord Peter Wimsey AICMFP.

[dennis]

Nothing to do with being dead though, just that you have passed on your genes by then. If survival of your offspring relied on you reaching 80 then things might be different in a few tens of thousands of years.

[Terry Casey]

The lenses were probably too small. I made that mistake with my first pair.

Try again, but select a suitable frame that takes much larger lenses.

The pair I'm wearing don't have the largest lenses I've had but sitting at my desk and looking straight ahead, I can see a point on the wall about 5' 6" up at the top of the frame, the top of my monitor is dead centre and the front edge of my keyboard is at the bottom of the frame but also being at the limit of my peripheral vision is not in focus.

If I drop my head to a more natural position, my field of view drops about a foot. I could still focus on anything in the didstance over the top of my monitor - if there wasn't a wall in the way! - the centre of the monitor is now central and the keyboard is in focus. All I have to do is move my eyes - not my head!

The first, unsatisfactory pair, came from an independent optician and were somewhat pricey but all the rest, bar the latest pair, have come from SpecSavers which, even after paying a premium for the superior lenses with improved peripheral vision, worked out cheaper. The current pair came from Asda - purely a matterr of geographical convenience - but, overall, I think I prefere SpecSavers.

[Terry Casey]

Not so. Because the pupils are dilated for the operation you need asistance to get home afterwards but, when the eyes get back to normal after a few hours, that's it - no further change or settling down period required.

Also, they take careful measurements of the eye before the operation - I assume it is establish the distance of the lens from the retina precisely - and choose the most approriate lens.

When I hasd the second one done, I was offered the choice of a distance lens or a short range lens for reading - apparently, some people like it as they don't need bi-focals or reading glasses once the brain learns which ey to use for what - but that idea horrified me and both my lenses were chosen for distance vision for which, as I said earlier, I now no longer need glasses.

[NY]

Ah, when I saw references to "squishy lenses" I wondered whether cataract surgery has now advanced to the point where the replacement lens has a variable focal length (like the one that we were born with) to allow accommodation. But it sounds as if it's still a fixed focal length, so still only useful for distance, with reading glasses still being needed for close work.

[Terry Casey]

And when did you last see anybody wearing a pair like that?

There have been lots of improvements over the years - lens materials with especially high refractive indices, etc.

I knew someone with a pair like that about 55 years ago after he had two operations to remove cataracts. This was long before they perfected the technique of distintegrating the cataract using ultrasound and removing it via a small slit. Then inserting a replacement lens via the same slit as they do today.

In his case, both lenses were removed, necessitating thos thick lensed glasses you remember to restotre his sight.

[Terry Casey]

If you do all your shopping in Poundland, you must expect a limited range of products to be available to you!

I've seen these glasses with negative values but not in Poundland, obviously.