Zulma López/ DLA. Ophthalmology specialist Dr. Carlos Utrera warned about the increase in myopia in children caused by the excessive use of electronic devices, and recommended limiting the time spent on screens to prevent this situation from continuing to affect the eye health of people, especially minors.
For Utrera, the excessive use of electronic devices is creating a pandemic within a pandemic. Previously, the use of screens was restricted to older people, but today children have a lot of access to devices and this is generating a pandemic of myopia.
“Myopia is a condition in which the patient focuses on close vision and loses distance vision, so children are developing premature myopia due to excessive use of electronic devices,” he explained.
Before the Covid pandemic, this condition was very characteristic in Asian countries, but after the pandemic, they realized that in Latin America, myopia in children also increased due to the use of these devices.
The specialist recommended limiting the use of screens by children and specified that the ideal would be for children under 3 years of age not to use them and for those over 3 years of age to only use them for 45 minutes. He added that another important situation is not only to limit the use of devices, but also for children to have access to open environments, go to the park, do sports because this stimulates their eyes, which are still developing and growing, to begin to see from a distance.
Dr. Utrera preferred not to speculate on the percentage of increase in myopia in children, however, he knows that this visual condition has increased, since myopic children frequently come to the clinic every day.
“New techniques and procedures are emerging to try to control this, not only with children’s activity, but also with medications such as atropine, some trends have other drops to manage children’s myopia and the use of lenses with special crystals to limit myopia,” he said.
Regarding the situation of adults, the specialist from Tachira noted that there is a significant spike in retinal pathologies. He recalled a phrase that struck him and that says that the human eye is designed to see in light, not to see light, so every time a person uses electronic devices they are focusing radiation on the eyes, the retinas, the lenses, so there may be an increase in cataracts, retinal pathologies, macular problems, which is associated with the use of screens.
She recommended that adults wear glasses, use protective filters when using electronic devices, and try to lower the brightness when looking at a screen to reduce the intensity of radiation on the eyes.
He explained that adults may experience wear and structural damage due to screen use, either to the lens or especially to the retina, specifically the macula, which is the area with the best visual acuity.
However, he said that the most frequent problem in adults is that they have fatigue or eye strain, caused by dry eyes and tiredness, “every adult patient who handles electronic devices should, if possible, apply a very simple, very basic technique, which is the 20-20-20 technique, what does that mean? Every 20 minutes the person should rest for 20 seconds looking 20 feet away, or 6 meters, what is that for? To relax and give the eye accommodation a rest,” he advised.
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2024-07-04 08:31:10