Hey guys,

Since it’s quite hard to think of a new post everytime, I leave it to that spark of inspiration and I choose not to write until I’ve been ‘sparked’ sufficiently.

So, following my bout of conjunctivitis, I’ve ditched my contact lenses and switched to good ol’ glasses. What started off as a necessity has actually turned into a source of comfort and I’ve honestly never been happier with my eyesight.(The fact that I’m beating corneal hypoxia adds to this joy 😬, sorry, sorry, Nerd alert)

This made me wonder why I’d ever worn contact lenses to begin with, which brings us to an important issue at hand.

Why do people have a so called Spectacle Stigma?

It’s something that’s been ingrained in us right since our childhood that people wearing spectacles are nerdy or geeky and are constantly the targets of bullies.
But how true is that fact?
Is it just created due to our own social behavior?

My colleague, Dr. Sharvani Pai conducted a study amongst caregivers of children and she found that a large number of children did not use the glasses prescribed to them because of fear of being made fun of.
I remember how when I was given glasses at the age of 10, I locked myself in my room and cried bitterly and kept begging my mother to let me re-take the eye test that I had failed.

If I don’t counsel my patients about spectacle compliance, I’m failing as an Opthalmologist.
Uncorrected refractive errors contribute significantly to the world’s preventable blindness.
And if the world already has a large proportion of unavoidable irreversible blindness, why add to this further?

Contact lenses are definitely a huge boon for us as adults but are almost impossible for children to wear on a day to day basis.
So encouraging children to wear spectacles is key to correcting their vision.

I’ve realised that children are more accepting of their glasses when they see other happy people wearing them too, so maybe, just mayyyyybe, they aren’t doomed.

All this made me make an important and interesting discovery, that we as adults should get over our fear of not looking good when we wear glasses, because frankly that was a major factor why I chose lenses over my glasses.
There might be people out there who aren’t so petty and so, kudos to them!

Ofcourse, it’s always a good change to go ‘Spectacle Free’ and wear lenses, especially if you’ve taken a long long time to do your eye make-up. 🙂
But, otherwise choose comfort and ditch those lenses.
The relief I’ve had when I realise I don’t need to remove my lenses before going to sleep is pretty darn huge.

And ofcourse, you’re actually playing a part in saving our childrens’ eyes.
Maybe a group of us won’t change the world, but that one child, who sees you with your cool frames and that happy smile, will definitely choose a funky pair of glasses and see the world so much better 🙂

A special thanks to my happy pretty girls who wear glasses and love flaunting them, they’ve inspired me, and I hope this post has inspired atleast some of y’all 🙂