Question: What are the best sunglasses to buy?
There are a very wide range of sunglasses on the market, but very few manufacturers give any information about the characteristics of the lenses, and most people buy for appearance rather than effectiveness.
A good pair of sunglasses should be large enough to prevent glare from entering the eye from around the edges. They should absorb all the ultraviolet (UV) and infra-red radiation frequencies, as these are totally unnecessary for vision, but may be harmful to the eye itself. The total light transmission of the sunglass lenses should be reduced to below 40%, but some go as low as 15%. Polarized lenses, which reduce reflected glare markedly, are also better than non-polarized ones. The actual color of the lens makes little difference, but the variable shaded lenses are better avoided, as they do not give adequate protection from reflected glare.
Excess sun on the eyes will aggravate cataracts, and can cause an overgrowth of tissue on the white of the eye called a pterygium. It is just as sensible to protect your eyes with good sunglasses as it is to protect your skin with a good sun screen lotion.

Question: The doctor is concerned about my grand-daughter’s squint. What is a squint, and is it serious?
A squint (or strabismus, to give it its correct medical name), occurs when the two eyes do not align equally when looking at a distant object. One eye appears to be looking in one direction, while the other is looking in a different direction. This is quite normal when looking at something very close, as both eyes turn in to look at it.
If a child does have a significant squint, the brain will gradually suppress the sight in one eye, to avoid double vision. The affected eye may never learn to see again, resulting in the child becoming blind in that eye. The correction of a squint at an early age is therefore vital. Treatment usually involves prescribing special spectacles to correct the problem. If the squint is more severe, the good eye will be covered for a period every day, as well as using the glasses. This strengthens the vision in the poor eye and prevents blindness in that eye. In marked degrees of squint, it is necessary to operate on the tiny muscles that control eye movement to shorten those that are not pulling the eye around far enough.