Damage to the eyesight occurs at the very moment of looking at the sun, but symptoms can take hours or days to manifest and there is no specific treatment to reverse these injuries, so the best way to protect the eyes was to prevent through certified glasses or by avoiding exposure.
The impact can go unnoticed at the time of exposure because the retina “barely has pain receptors, which causes many not to associate the symptoms with exposure to the eclipse,” said Jesús Merayo, director of the Fernández-Vega University Institute, in a recent article on how to safely view the eclipse.
How can you tell if the retina has been damaged? What would you notice if that happens?
After following the protection recommendations, retinal damage should not occur, Merayo considers, who insisted that damage in patients with solar retinopathy can generally go unnoticed.
Once it occurs, in most cases the symptoms can take “up to 12 hours to appear, practically always appearing within the first 24-28 hours”, says Lucía Galletero, ophthalmologist at Vithas Vitoria.
The most frequent symptoms are:
- blurred vision.
- appearance of a central spot (like a dark or blurry dot in the center of vision).
- distortion of lines (seeing waves).
- dyschromatopsias (visual disorder that alters the ability to perceive and distinguish colors)
- difficulty reading or focusing on details.
“If any of these signs appear, it is recommended to see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible for better evaluation. In any case, the best option is prevention, since lesions can be irreversible,” concluded the ophthalmologist.
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Why could watching it without protection have left a mark?
“The sun emits dangerous radiation even when it is partially covered by the moon. At that moment, high-energy radiation is especially intense and can directly affect ocular structures. The only safe way to observe the total or partial eclipse is to use certified glasses,” emphasized Merayo.
What has the radiation caused in the eye?
“Exposure to the sun can cause a burn and destroy the exposed tissue. This is known for exposure of other tissues such as the skin, but the eye also has a focusing system (cornea and lens) that concentrates the sun’s energy at the point we are looking at and multiplies the thermal effect and the risk of permanent and irreversible damage,” argues the director of the Fernández-Vega University Institute.
Direct observation of the sun can permanently damage the retina and even cause solar retinopathy, an injury caused by photochemical and thermal damage from solar radiation on the macula (where the vast majority of the cells that see color or allow us to read are located) that can cause total loss of vision. “This risk exists whether you look at the sun unprotected with the naked eye or use inadequate methods,” adds Merayo.
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