Playing Russian Roulette with Your Eyes?

 

The old game of putting one live cartridge into a chamber of a revolver, spinning the cylinder and then putting the pistol to your head and pulling to trigger Russians used to force captives to engage in –with the promise that would be spared if the gun didn't go off is still played today in many countries and with many different versions.

One version which popped up here in British Columbia, Canada , was created by the Ministry of Health and has to do with your eyesight and probably exists in other parts of the world as well.

 

The game started here in British Columbia when the Ministry of Health in BC, Kevin Falcon reversed his ministries previous stand and has decided to allow people with existing prescriptions to buy glasses directly from such online lens retailers as Coastal Contacts without an optometrists examination.

The about-face not only made this possible but it has also made it possible for opticians (who have less training than optometrists) to conduct sight tests without having their findings reviewed by a medical. Until now their clients still had to have this done in order to have a prescription filled.

Falcon's rationale for this is that by lowering the standards it will open up more opportunities for customers and that there is no medical evidence to show that an examination by an optometrist -- is absolutely necessary -- in healthy adults.

What all of this has done of course is to put the whole problem in the hands of the customer which is fine –except for the fact that things like cataracts, and glaucoma have a habit of sneaking up on you –even in otherwise health adults.

The bottom line is that if you are tempted to buy your eyewear here in British Columbia or anywhere in the world where this is an option, you should still be having your eyes examined regularly by an optometrist who is trained to detect such problems at an early stage. (In addition to this they can also often detect other health problems during such examinations).

Protect your eyesight in this way and there should be no reason why you could not also save money by filling existing prescriptions online. Just make sure that you have made a diligent background search about any such online retailers – first.

More information about this topic can be found in the April 24, 2010, edition of The Globe and Mail on page A7/