When people lose an eye, we advise them to wear glasses as a safety measure. This is in response to the biggest fear after suffering eye loss – damaging the other eye.
For those who choose to wear glasses, we have two
important tips.
Tip 1: Always remember to clean the second lens (the one covering the artificial eye).
It’s a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. Because they can’t see out of it, people forget to clean the second lens. But a dirty lens is often very distracting to everyone else, and causes unwanted staring.
We heard of a situation where a smiley face sticker was stuck on the glasses lens covering a man’s artificial eye, just as a joke. The owner of the glasses knew it was there, but because he couldn’t see it, soon forgot about it. A couple of hours later, the sticker was removed by the guy who’d put it there because it was annoying everyone else who could see it.
We find ourselves cleaning our clients’ glasses when they come in to see us. It’s so hard to look at one clean and one dirty lens. And we’ve observed people cleaning their glasses by holding them by the “non-seeing” lens, not realising what they are doing.
Tip 2: Always check that you have two lenses in your glasses.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but you’ll be surprised how many people walk around wearing glasses with only one lens. The lens over the artificial eye has fallen out, unnoticed. It can be some time before the missing lens is discovered – a very embarrassing experience.
A man attending an interstate business meeting recently found himself in this situation. Arriving at the airport, he was picked up by an associate he’d never met before, but who knew he had an artificial eye. Before heading off for lunch, he was taken to his hotel to drop off his bags. As he checked in, he began to wonder if his artificial eye was crooked because the staff were giving him some funny looks. He soon discovered that he only had one lens in his glasses. When he asked his companion about it, the man replied that he thought this was the norm for people who only had one eye.
So always check that you have two lenses, and that they’re both clean, before you put your glasses on.
