Dry macula degeneration can be very damaging to the central central vision.
Sometimes clients find it hard to understand why new glasses aren't giving the sufferer sharp and clear vision.
A little background to start off; the macula is the very central part of the back of your eye, it is lined up to the centre of your pupil so when light comes into the eye it is focused onto the macula. The macula is packed with photoreceptors to give you the sharpest vision possible.
Unfortunately sometimes (usually with increasing age) the macula can degenerate and is no longer able to give the sharp, clear vision we want.
The easiest way I've found to explain the dry form of macula degeneration is to think of the macula as a projector screen, (now this is where I may loose some people who aren't old enough to know what I mean!). When your projector screen is nice and smooth and you have focussed your image onto the screen (you can think of the projector lens as your glasses), you get a nice sharp image.
If your projector screen is damaged in the middle (for example if I crumple up the middle of the screen so it's rippled and bumpy) no matter how good the focus of your projector lens is you won't have a clear, sharp image.
That is essentially what is happening when you have dry macula degeneration. The back of the eye is bumpy and rippled so the image you see isn't sharp.
Sometimes new glasses will help, they can sharpen the whole picture that you see but unfortunately sometimes new glasses won't give that sharper central vision clients want.
I must say here that there are other conditions and things that can happen to the eyes that aren't macula degeneration. You should always seek medical advice and examination from an optometrist or ophthalmologist to get a diagnosis and the help that you may need.
