Eyewear and Night Driving
On another thread the topic drifted (imagine that) from SV free form to night driving. Pete Hanlin requested a new thread to cover this issue and the great discussion that ensued.
See thread here, starting on page 2: http://www.optiboard.com/forums/show...192#post294192
The question of what to do with patients who have a difficulty driving at night arose after Pete made this comment:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pete Hanlin
... That brings me to fad product that just really causes me to seethe- namely, yellow tinted "night driving" lenses. Basically, placing ANY tint in front of the eye will reduce contrast sensitivity (because less light is making it to the retina). Anyone who could theoretically benefit from a yellow tint (e.g., someone with advancing cataracts) probably shouldn't be driving at night anyway. I would discourage practitioners from prescribing any kind of tinted lens for night driving (at least in the Dallas / Ft. Worth area :^).
So Pete, here is your new thread. And to everyone else, is there anything we can do to help patients who do have trouble driving at night?
Sharpstick
Glare reduction at nite is complicated
My 30 some years spent in lab/manufacturing/ technical training had given me a false sense of real issues with night driving. My following 6 years as Ophthalmic dispensing (80% elderly) has shown a whole "new light".
We deal with pre/post cataract surgery, retinal issues, and an amazing amount of pigment bleaching through lack of sun protection. These issues point to more than one effect, and I have found no tint helping any of our local issues. If glasses must be worn at night, only addition of AR coating seems to help.
Yes, looking at the white line while oncoming vehicles are passing should be standard driving skills, but glare also is equally distracting from highly reflective roadsigns. Too often I see recommendations of blue-blocking (yellow) tints, but strongly disagree that they really help in extreme low light.
Lots of questions, little answers available
I too am becoming more curious with additional research papers read. Seeing data suggesting the dilated eye in low light can actually perceive better accuity with blue light as it concentrates more in the area of the "rods" would tell me a blue filter may help. I doubt it, but is that the reason for blue emmiting headlamps?
There is an abudance of research papers on these topics, but only more concepts to consider.
Pupillary Reaction Times by Age
One theory I was playing with was that pupillary reaction times could decrease with age, but I found a study that elimated this:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...gdbfrom=pubmed