Do these color blind glasses really work? YES.
This is different than the glasses for red-green color blindness. This little cutie has achromatopsia. Remember learning about rods and cones of the eye back in science class? Cones help you see color vision but also help you see in high levels of light. Rods help you see in the dark or at nighttime and work best in low levels of light.
In achromatopisa, kiddos donât have any cones and only have rods to see.
Because the baby only has rods, she has trouble seeing during the day because her rods get quickly bleached out, or saturated, in bright light. This means she has no photoreceptor cells that can function. The brighter light, the faster and more severely her rods get saturated and the more this sweet baby struggles to see.
But, at low light levels, she CAN see because rods were made to function in dim lighting. These red glasses help reduce the amount of light so that the rods donât get bleached out and improves her vision. It doesnât restore her color vision, but it allows it so she can see!!
So, for this type of color deficiency, these glasses really truly help. The red lenses block the higher energy blue end of the spectrum, allowing primarily red light to pass through to the retina. This protects the rod photopigments, allowing the baby to see in bright light that otherwise would be too overwhelming. Itâs the same reason we use red light in a dark room if youâve ever developed photos.
#colorblindness #achromotopsia #pediatricophthalmologist #ophthalmology
