Commander Kehar Singh an Octogenarian had also put Dr. Vandana Jain and her team’s creativity to test at Advanced Eye Hospital and Institute at Sanpada, Navi Mumbai. Commander Singh was once an athlete and used to actively compete with Milkha Singh and was crowned Mr. Cochin. He is suffering from a condition called tracheal stenosis where his main airway got extremely narrow. Additionally, his airway would collapse and get blocked whenever he lies down. Cdr. Singh has to resort to a positive airway pressure wherein a machine increases the air pressure in the air passage during sleep thus preventing its collapse. Besides this, he has to sleep on his side as he cannot lie down on his back for more than a few minutes without getting breathless. An emergency tracheostomy (an artificial opening in trachea to get airway assess) was made in 1966 after a road traffic accident to get access to his airway. Subsequently he developed narrowing of the airway and developed difficulty in breathing.

What is a prosthesis?

A prosthetic eye or artificial eye is usually made of hard, plastic acrylic. The prosthetic eye is shaped like a shell and is customized to ensure perfect fit. The prosthetic eye fits over an ocular implant. The ocular implant as we mentioned earlier, is a rounded object that is surgically embedded deeper in the socket to impart volume to the bony orbit. An artificial eye or the ocular prosthesis is generally made at least six to eight weeks after surgery. This time is necessary to allow for the swelling to reduce and also to allow the socket to heal.

Cataract is the clouding of clear lens of eye, leading to reduced vision. It is an age-related process.

What is lens?
Lens is a clear crystalline structure in the eye. It helps in focusing images on retina. Any changes causing denaturation of lens proteins makes it opaque thus blocking visual pathway and leads to blurred vision.

The retina is the most important vision forming part of the eye from where visual impulses are transmitted to the brain. It is the thin innermost coat of the eye and receives light impulses transmitted through Cornea and Lens of the eye.

Blindness gone with Bionic Eyes!!

How different Mahabharata would have been if King Dhithrastra, and the Queen Gandhari, parents of Kaurvas would have had bionic eyes!

Maybe we would have a different mythological history!

What is it like to see again after years of blindness?

After decades, the time has come where we can actually make a blind person with genetic or congenital retinal disorder regain vision with bionic eyes.

What happens to our eyelids as we age?
As our body grows old, so does our skin. Slowly over a period of time, our skin loses its elasticity. Due to the effect of gravity, the excessive skin soon gets collected over our upper and lower eyelids. This excessive skin then hangs down forming a fold or a hood.

This excessive loose skin hanging over the lower eyelids causes wrinkles and bulges. When this occurs on the upper eyelids, the excessive skin forms a hood which can get in the way of clear vision.

Like other areas in the body, fat is also present around the eyeball to cushion it from the skull. This can also cause bulging in the lower and upper eyelids. There is a thin membrane to hold the fat in place. When this membrane weakens with age, the fat juts into the eyelids, causing baggy eyelids.

These wrinkles, bulges and bags together add up to give the eyes, a ‘tired’ or ‘old’ look.

Thyroid problems can surprisingly affect your eyes – the way they look and also your vision. Learn about the effects of thyroid dysfunction on the eyes so you can protect your eyes.

What is thyroid eye disease?

In certain diseases, the thyroid gland secretes abnormally high amount of thyroid hormones resulting in symptoms such as high blood pressure, palpitations, irritability, fatigue, increased pulse rate, weight loss. This disease process may be auto-immune. This means that the immune system, which normally helps to defend your body against disease, suddenly decides that the body’s healthy cells are foreign. Effectively, the immune system attacks healthy body cells.

During this, the immune system also attacks the soft tissue, the muscles and the connective tissue around the eye leading to inflammation, swelling, engorgement and eventually fibrosis. This is known as thyroid eye disease (TED), thyroid associated orbitopathy (TAO) and graves orbitopathy.

Bribe. Coercion. Camouflage. Pleading. A parent has to have multiple tricks up their sleeve, when it comes to getting their child ready for a trip to the Doctor’s place. Whether it is getting your kid ready for his vaccination shots or for his first eye check up, parents are often at their wit’s end. So how do you prepare your child for an eye test?

Dr. Poonam Jagtap is a resident of Ghansoli, near Koparkhairane in Navi Mumbai, India. She is a medical practitioner herself and works as an assistant medical director at Lions Hospital in Koparkhairane ,Navi Mumbai.

Dr. Poonam Jagtap underwent SMILE Lasik surgery at the Centre for Lasik Surgery in Advanced Eye Hospital, Navi Mumbai, India. SMILE Lasik is the world’s most advanced laser vision correction surgery that helps one get rid of spectacles. Dr. Poonam Jagtap shared her Lasik journey with us:

Dr. Akshay Nair, Oculoplastic Surgeon answers 5 quick questions about Ptosis or Droopy Eyes:

What is Ptosis ?

Drooping down of the upper eyelids is called ‘Ptosis’ or ‘Blepharoptosis’. The result is that one eye looks smaller than the other eye. This condition, which is commonly called ‘droopy eyes’, can affect one eye or both the eyes.