Periphery Makes A Difference

Most people feel that as long as they see clearly at distance, everything's OK with their vision. You could see detail clearly and still have problems with your vision. If you have poor peripheral vision, you can have a lot of trouble functioning. Imagine driving and not being able to see the cars at your side. Imagine being a quarterback and not being able to see a lineman coming at you from the side.

There are two types of peripheral vision problems. There are those patients who have lost their periphery due to diseases such as glaucoma or stroke. Then there are those patients who test well on peripheral vision tests in the office but when they're under stress, their vision becomes tunneled. This type of loss of peripheral vision is functional in nature and could be trained.

One last item. Legally blind can be defined as not having correctable vision (with glasses or contacts) past 20/200 or have very tunneled vision.