Ophthalmology is the medical specialty devoted to diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders that affect eyes and vision. Ophthalmologists are physicians who specialize in ophthalmology. They diagnose and treat abnormalities of the eye and perform surgery on the eye. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors and should be differentiated from optometrists, who test vision and prescribe corrective lenses, and opticians, who make or sell corrective eyewear.

Minor eye disorders are common. These are called refractive errors and are due to objects that a person is looking at not being properly focused on the retina of the eye. The four main types of refractive errors are myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness), astigmatism (differences in curvatures along different planes in the eye lens) and presbyopia (a reduction in the focusing power of the eye with age).

Eye diseases are relatively rare, though they become more common as we get older. Some diseases are:

Glycoma : in this condition there is raised intra-ocular pressure, visual field loss, enlargement of the blind spot and changes in the appearance of the optic nerve head.

Chorioditis : inflammation of the choroid, which is a vascular rich layer located between the sclera and the retina.

Keratoconus : thinning of the corneal apex, and bulging of the tissue which increases myopia.

Retinitis Pigmentosa : a degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium.

Cataract : loss of transparency of the lens of the eye.

Conjunctivitis : inflammation of mucous membrane, leading to reddening eye, thickening of the conjunctival tissue and some discharge of mucous.

Defective Color Vision : reduction in the ability of a person to distinguish between different colors.

Strabismus (Squint Eyed): a failure of the two eyes to look at the same object thereby preventing binocular vision.

Most of these diseases do not have any dramatic symptoms and very often people do not even realize there is something wrong until irreversible damage has been done. Hence it is important that you seek immediate help from an ophthalmologist if you even suspect that you have an eye disease.

If you need to have your eyes checked by an ophthalmologist, you can contact any of one of these listed below. The list of Oahu ophthalmologists has been compiled for you by Oahu.us.