Does the world around you look dull and colorless? Do you have issues distinguishing between different colors, especially green and red? You’re not alone! Many people have poor color vision, also known as color vision deficiency or color blindness.
Fortunately, our eye doctors have a solution to help you see the world around you more vividly than ever before. Introducing EnChroma® glasses for correction of color blindness!
To understand how these glasses work, it helps to know a little about color blindness itself.
What Is Color Blindness and How Does It Occur?
Color blindness is a common vision problem, especially in men. The American Optometric Association estimates that roughly 8% of white males and 0.5% of women have some form of color vision deficiency. It is often an inherited condition, but may also result from injury to the eye, disease, side effects from medication and simply getting older.
It is extremely rare to be completely blind to color, such that you can only see shades of black, white and gray. Rather, in most cases your color blindness would cause you to have trouble distinguishing between specific colors, usually red and green.
So how does this happen?
The human eye contains three color-sensitive photopigments, located in the retina, inside receptors called cones. These cones communicate to the eyes the levels of blue, red, or green in a given object being viewed. That information is then communicated to your brain, where it is translated into sight.
Most cases of color blindness occur as a result of an abnormal overlapping response by the cones in your eye. In most cases, this affects cone cells that normally are sensitive to either red or green wavelengths of light. The abnormal overlap of sensitivity to these wavelengths results in color blindness.
How Do EnChroma Glasses Help?
To compensate for the abnormal cone response that results in color blindness, EnChroma glasses filter the wavelengths of light that cause this overlap to occur. And voila! The brain is now better able to tell the difference between red wavelengths and green wavelengths, letting you see colors more distinctly.
Though EnChroma glasses can’t cure your color blindness or produce 100% normal color vision, they will still allow you to see colors you’ve never been able to see up to this point and experience almost-normal color vision while wearing the specially tinted lenses.
The World Looks Different When You Wear EnChroma Glasses
Not everyone who has color blindness is aware of it. Many people live their lives with mild, moderate or even severe color vision deficiency and never notice that the world around them looks different for them than it does for other people.
If you have color vision deficiency, it can make many every-day activities much more difficult to accomplish. For instance, while driving later in the day, it can be difficult to distinguish between the red of a red sign and the sunset in the background. Selecting clothes to wear for the day can also be difficult, since you often need to be able to discern whether certain colors match, and would look good together as part of an outfit.
EnChroma glasses have been on the market for a number of years, and over that time, many viral videos on the internet show dramatic scenes of colorblind people putting on EnChroma glasses for the first time, and instantly seeing the world in full color.
The effect in these videos appears dramatic. The people in these videos are often overcome with emotion, as are their family members, who are rightfully very excited for them.
These people notice an immediate difference upon putting on EnChroma glasses. They begin immediately to see just how beautiful their spouse’s piercing green eyes are, or appreciate the vibrant colors in their garden for the first time.
However, for most people, it will take a little longer for the eyes to adjust to seeing new, more vivid colors. For most people it takes somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes before colors start to look different, and it may take a little while of “practice time” for your eyes to start perceiving some of the richer, more vivid colors that you’re not used to seeing.
Are EnChroma Glasses Right For You?
EnChroma glasses can dramatically change a person’s life for the better. Up to 80% of people with color vision problems are able to benefit from EnChroma lens technology. Each person’s color vision deficiency is unique and so, therefore, is the level to which color blind glasses such as EnChroma can help.
For people with complete color blindness, for instance, EnChroma glasses aren’t able to help at all. This is because EnChroma amplifies a person’s existing ability to see colors, so you must be able to distinguish at least some level of color for these glasses to enhance what you see.
EnChroma glasses can help with severe color blindness, but work best for those with mild or moderate color blindness.
EnChroma glasses aren’t a cure for color blindness. Once you take the glasses off, the world will look the way it did before. Many people who try the glasses experience an immediate, dramatic result.
Want to know more about EnChroma glasses and see if this revolutionary eyewear technology is right for you? Come visit out eye doctors at today!
Q&A
Are EnChroma glasses usually covered by insurance?
Most insurances don’t currently cover EnChroma lenses as a person’s primary prescription. However, some people with vision coverage may be able to ask their insurance to cover EnChroma glasses as prescription sunglasses. It is possible to receive a voucher or discount on EnChroma glasses in this way.
Are there different types of EnChroma glasses and lenses for different styles and needs?
Yes. EnChroma glasses are available in various styles of sunglasses for wearing outside and lighter tints for indoors, such as around the house or at the office. EnChroma’s color blind glasses also have a 60-day money back guarantee and a 2-year warranty.