By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A surge of primary-school-aged students and Afghanistan evacuees are being treated for eye difficulties, according to a Dandenong optometrist.
Dee Makadia, the optometry director at Dandenong Plaza Specsavers, says remote learning has led to more children 7 years and older needing glasses.
Students were spending extra hours of staring at a near-distance into tablet and phone screens, which was leading to more cases of myopia or short-sightedness.
Reading in dim light – such as from weak bedside lamps – was another deleterious factor.
Mr Makadia recommends for every 20 minutes’ screen time to rest the eyes on a faraway object for 20 seconds.
And to consciously increase your blink rate to stop focusing so earnestly at the screen.
“You should be blinking once every three seconds. Every day, our eyelids travel 300 metres while blinking – that’s the height of the Eureka Skydeck.”
Also regular breaks, like a 15-minute walk, can do wonders for the eyes.
“You’ve got to embrace these basic things so as to not cause problems long-term.”
In recent months, Mr Makadia has also been seeing some of the 1000-plus evacuees from Afghanistan who have settled in Greater Dandenong and Casey.
Many have issues relating to diabetes or cataracts that would be easily removed under the Australian public health system.
Some evacuees have simply been supplied with the wrong glasses, or not been aware they could improve their impaired vision.
“In other words, they accepted losing their eyesight as part of growing old.”
Mr Makadia says he’s also heard extraordinary stories such as from an evacuated translator who’d worked for the Australian Government in Afghanistan.
“His supervisor comes in and says you’ve got to go right now.
“He picks up his mother and things from home, and goes straight to the airport.”
The mother’s eyes were however in a “bad way”. So impaired by cataracts that she couldn’t read the largest letter on the eye chart.
“She was just wearing glasses for reading.
“It’s something that could have been dealt with a long time ago.”
