The ability of the eye to
translate the light it receives into meaningful images – the
phenomenon called “seeing” – deteriorates as people age.
Nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism
are three of the most common vision-related conditions, all of which
demonstrate the vulnerability of the sense of sight to aging.
Although people from the
ancient Egyptian and Roman civilizations knew how to use lenses to
magnify objects and even writings they cannot see clearly, people at
the time accepted the natural and inevitable fact that their vision
would decline with time. This was true until eyeglasses were invented
in Italy at around the year 1284. The first glass contact lens was
developed much later in 1887, while its first plastic version was not
introduced until 1939.
Some people may find both
glasses and contact lenses bothersome due to the nature of their
work, their lifestyle, a lack of budget, or simply personal
preference. It's a good thing, then, that many improvements have been
made, not just on the devices themselves but also in finding other
means to maintain good eyesight or to improve deteriorating ones.
This includes the use of laser in performing eye surgery. A process
that traces its roots to 1982, laser eye surgery owes its beginning
to the Excimer laser, a tool originally used in the IBM laboratories
to etch silicone in computer chips, but was found to have the ability
to cut through human tissue as well.
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