Some Ontario hospitals, eye-care professionals seeing increase of calls after solar eclipse

It was billed as a once in a lifetime event, but some people could be feeling the effects of Monday’s eclipse for the rest of their lifetime. Complaints about blurry vision and concerns that maybe they had looked inadvertently at the sun or had looked at the sun by mistake. Doctor Marissa Sit is an ophthalmologist at University Health Network. Her clinic has seen a jumpin calls this week. Am I surprised there’s an uptick? No. With any kind of major event, you know, there’s people react in different ways, she says. Symptoms can begin several hours after being exposed. Blurry vision. Seeing spots in front of your eyes, Seeing WAVY lines. There might be a distortion of colors if exposure to any harmful raises, brief sit and others say symptoms can go away. If anyone looked for a longer time without protection, there’s the potential for something called solar retinopathy. That’s when strong light hurts the retinas. Unfortunately, there is really no medical or surgical treatment that we can offer you in the lead up. There was lots of advice like this. Obviously we want certified eclipse glasses. That’s the Safeway to look at the sun. We’re really happy that they heated our warnings, and I think it’s really important that patients call to make sure that their eyes are OK Optometrist Dr. Josephine Pepe says she and her colleagues have seen a spike in calls, too, but most are looking for reassurance. We’ve had. Of patients who, you know, just didn’t notice that they needed glasses and they went to cover one eye. And because they’re more sensitive and thinking about their eyes more because of the eclipse with a focus on the eyes right now, experts say we should all regularly go for eye checkups and wear sunglasses with UVA and UVB protection. You don’t want to just buy like a cheapy pair because honestly, those ones they they’ll have you be sometimes, but sometimes that gets rubbed off after time. Peppy says polarized sunglasses can help cut down on UV reflection. Her last tip? Protect yourself even when there isn’t full sun. Sure, the clouds help a little bit, but you still can. Get a lot of UV damage, and so it’s really important to wear sunglasses during the summer and during the winter if there’s a lot of snow in Toronto. Neck West, all City News.