When local opticians take bookings for sight test appointments, they hear a lot of questions. Sometimes, they are one-off questions that they have never heard before, which teaches us all something when we find the answer, but they do get asked some of the same questions on many occasions. The more frequently a question is asked, the more practiced they become at answering it and the better they are at helping their patients to overcome visual problems.
The most popular question must be, ‘how do I prevent glare whilst driving at night?’; this is an issue that affects many of optical patients and as such your optometrist have investigated this issue and will offer the following advice.
- Ensure your lenses have a good anti-reflection coating. These lenses help to increase the amount of light that passes through the lens, making vision clearer and reducing the glare of reflected light.
- Clean your windscreen…inside and out. Dust particles and smudge marks can obscure your vision and reflect and diffuse light making oncoming lights seem brighter and more dazzling.
- Clean your headlights – this will mean you are giving yourself more light to see by.
- Turn off interior lights. Extra light within your car can seem extra bright, and can deteriorate your night vision further.
- Avoid looking at oncoming headlights. Look away and down to the left hand side of the road. You will still see oncoming traffic in your peripheral vision, but the effects of their headlights will be much reduced.
Most importantly, if you are bothered by the glare of lights, book an eye test at your local practice. This way, you can ensure that your eye sight and eye health is in good shape and any existing spectacles can be checked for damage, smudges or scratches.
