myths.

hi all,
sorry for not writing for a long time. was pretty busy with many not so pretty things!!
patients come to me with all sorts of questions. most of them stem from myths that are circulating from generations together:

1)The spectacle number increases due to watching TV: its an age old myth. my parents have told me the same. though its a good excuse to shy away unrelenting kids from TV, its the biggest myth i feel. what i can agree to is that,TV watching taxes your eyes a lot and thus the person has lots of difficulty and strain while doing other activities like studying ( which hardly any kid does willingly), or reading etc.

2) don't look at the light once u have been operated for cataract: this cant exactly be called a myth. in the olden days cataract surgery was barbaric if you compare the techniques with today's techniques. large cuts and thick sutures. the patient would genuinely have difficulty looking directly towards light. but people have taken this too far. in my area, my own patients, even educated ones, sit secluded in a room, with the goggles on even a month after surgery, with all the doors and windows closed and curtained! and these same people seek permission for watching TV!!
now the latest techniques of cataract surgery allow u to resume your normal life even within two days of surgery. but old habits die hard!
further, everybody in India has a strong phobia of getting operated in summer. again it was valid in the very old days when patients would have to lie down in one position for days on together, not to move their head at all ( with sand bags cushioning the head from both the sides), and they were not allowed to have a head bath for at least two months!!
now after a phacoemulsification surgery patients can have a head bath after 2 days. there are no restrictions on movement. but still the old adage stays " no cataract surgery in summer. u will loose the eye."

3) i don't know about mega/metro cities like mumbai, pune etc. but in semi rural and rural areas, people still relate a tooth extraction to a cataract or an eye problem. its not true. but i can reason for them. the teeth and the periorbital area are served by the same nerve ( various branches of trigeminal). so a patient having tooth ache can sometimes have pain AROUND the eye ( not the eye per se'). may be that's why this feeling gets generated.

4) in India most of the time any ailment in females including cataract is related to a family planning operation. the poor tubal ligation is held responsible for anything and everything that the female might suffer after the procedure. this is no the truth. Tubal ligation is absolutely NOT related to any other ailments.

there are many more myths which need to be busted. there are many things all of us need to know. i will keep on writing as and when things come to my mind

i sincerely request all to have a look at two blogs by my friend Dr Manish Jain. the links are there on my blog ( rendezvous.doctors and rendezvous.bell the cat). serious readers will get a beautiful insight into many things related to medicine and bureaucracy.
till then
c ya!!