Keep aging eyes healthy

Here's something else to look forward to: "When it comes to eyes, most problems come later in life." So says opthalmologist Dr. Avi Tantri. Cataracts, macular degeneration, floaters-these are just a few of the less appealing eye problems we may encounter as we age.

Tantri, who recently joined the practice of Dr. William Kirber in Lakeville, is a comfortably reassuring guide to eye ills. But he thinks we should be aware of potential problems and how to deal with them. On Saturday, Feb. 9, Tantri will discuss "The Aging Eye" at Noble Horizons' community room in Salisbury at 10:30 a.m. In a preview conversation at his office on Porter Street this week, Tantri discussed a few ailments many of us can expect to encounter.

Almost everyone develops cataracts at some point in later life, said Tantri, but for some people, they never present a problem. "Most of the time, it simply means you need new glasses," he said. For more serious cases-when new prescriptions no longer help-ultrasound surgery is effective and in many cases, a simple procedure. (As it happens, said Tantri, Sharon Hospital has a new "cutting-edge" machine).

Macular degeneration, which affects "easily over one million people" and is the leading cause of legal blindness in the United States, can be treated, said Tantri. About 90 percent of those with the illness have the "dry form," which can be slowed, though not reversed, with vitamin supplements. They may also prevent the dry form from moving to the "wet" form, which can progress much more quickly. There are a number of "remarkable" treatments for the wet form, said Tantri, and in some cases the wet form is reversible.

And how about those little floating spots, commonly known as floaters? They arise when the jelly that fills most of the eye clumps, blocking light, hence producing what we see as little black spots, often floating. As we age, floaters are not unusual, said Tantri, and usually don't mean anything dangerous. However, if there is a "sudden onset of a large number of floaters, or bright flashes of light," Tantri said, you do want to get your eyes checked.

And then there's presbyopia, which is the medical term for when you suddenly can't read the menu in a restaurant. It does, in fact, hit most of us when we're around 40, said Tantri and it's explained by our eye lenses becoming less flexible with age. Reading glasses may be the solution.

Glaucoma is an eye ailment that is tricky because there are virtually no symptoms until we start to lose peripheral vision. It's a disintigration of the optic nerve, and there are many effective treatments, said Tantri, but they can't restore vision: "What's lost is lost." Glaucoma is almost always "an incidental finding," he said, with a simple pressure test performed as a routine matter when you have an eye exam.

Dry eyes are a common problem that are often worse in winter when cold temperatures and indoor heaters rob the atmosphere of its humidity. Dry eyes are the result of our not producing enough tears or our tears evaporating too quickly. In the first case, artificial tears (eye drops) can help.

In the second, a hot compress on the eyes, which melts the oil on our lashes, can keep the tears flowing. Tantri cautions against using over-the-counter eye drops that "get the red out" only because they use a preservative that, if used on an ongoing basis, can actually aggravate the problem.

While Tantri doesn't think most people need to wear sunglasses here in the winter-snow blindness is a problem only at much higher altitudes, he says-he did point out that people should think about eye protection if they play sports (or throw snowballs).

Many eyeglasses, while shatterproof, don't cover the whole eye area, he pointed out, leaving the eye vulnerable.Tantri suggests wearing safety glasses or sports prescriptive lenses.

After age 50, it's reasonable to have an eye exam every two years unless you have a problem, said Tantri. By age 60, he recommends an exam every one to two years.