Common conditions
Cataracts
The lens inside your eye turns cloudy. Things look blurred and bright lights become hard to look at.
Eye conditions
26 plain-English guides. Each one explains the condition, what changes in daily life, what to ask at your appointment and where the information comes from.
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26 guides
Specialist care
Glaucoma
Damage to the nerve at the back of your eye can cause sight loss. Early changes often go unnoticed, so eye tests matter.
Retina & sight loss
Macular degeneration
The middle of your sight becomes blurred or wavy. Reading and recognising faces get harder.
Retina & sight loss
Diabetic retinopathy
Diabetes can damage the back of your eyes. You may notice nothing at first, so regular eye checks matter.
Common conditions
Dry eyes
Your eyes feel sore, gritty or dry. They can also water or look blurred when tears do not keep them moist.
Common conditions
Blepharitis
The edges of your eyelids become sore, itchy or crusty. A pharmacist can advise on gentle lid care.
Retina & sight loss
Flashes & floaters
Many floaters are harmless. A sudden change needs an urgent check.
Retina & sight loss
Retinal detachment
The light-sensitive layer at the back of your eye pulls away. A new shadow, flashes or sudden blur needs urgent help.
Specialist care
Keratoconus
The clear front of your eye changes shape. Things look blurred or bent.
Specialist care
Uveitis
The inside of your eye becomes inflamed. Pain, a red eye, blur or bright light hurting your eyes needs urgent advice.
Common conditions
Short-sightedness
Things far away look blurred. Things close to you are easier to see.
Common conditions
Long-sightedness
Things close to you look blurred. Reading makes your eyes feel tired.
Inherited retinal conditions
Retinitis pigmentosa
An inherited condition which often makes seeing in dim light and noticing things to the side harder. Everyone's pattern of sight loss is different.
Inherited retinal conditions
Rod-cone dystrophy
A group of conditions in which the eye's dim-light cells are affected before its colour and detail cells. RP is a common example.
Inherited retinal conditions
Cone-rod dystrophy
Inherited conditions which usually make fine detail, colours and bright light difficult before dim-light and side vision are affected.
Inherited retinal conditions
Stargardt disease
An inherited condition which mainly affects detailed sight in the centre of your view. Reading and recognising faces get harder.
Inherited retinal conditions
Usher syndrome
An inherited condition which affects both hearing and sight. Some types affect balance too.
Inherited retinal conditions
Achromatopsia
An inherited condition which makes colours and fine detail hard to see. Bright light is often uncomfortable.
Inherited retinal conditions
Choroideremia
An inherited condition which often makes seeing at night harder first. Over time, the area you can see gets smaller.
Colour vision
Colour vision deficiency
Some colours are harder to tell apart. Most people still see colour. Different types affect different colour pairs.
Colour vision
Red-green colour vision deficiency
The commonest group of inherited colour-vision differences. More colour pairs are affected than the name suggests.
Colour vision
Blue-yellow colour vision deficiency
A less common colour-vision difference, sometimes called a tritan type. Some people are born with the difference and others acquire the change later.
Focus & eye coordination
Astigmatism
Light does not focus evenly into one sharp image. Objects nearby and farther away can look blurred or distorted.
Focus & eye coordination
Presbyopia
The lens becomes less flexible with age, making close work harder to focus on. Reading correction often helps.
Focus & eye coordination
Amblyopia (lazy eye)
Vision in one eye, or occasionally both, has not developed fully in childhood. The eye may look completely normal.
Focus & eye coordination
Strabismus (squint)
The eyes do not point in the same direction. A turn can be constant or intermittent and can affect children or adults.