Color Blindness

Color blindness is a vision disorder in which certain colors or their shades cannot be perceived. People with this vision disorder may have problems distinguishing shades of the same color or differentiating more than one color.

Color blindness is much more common in men than in women. As a result of the research, this rate is approximately 10 percent in men and 0.6 percent in women.

It is one of the retina-related diseases of the eye. The main cause of the problem is the lack of pigment in the retina or the absence of some pigments at all. Although it can occur at birth due to hereditary reasons, it can also occur later for different reasons. As a result, it usually occurs with birth.

But in some people, the lens layer, which is transparent at birth, may darken as they get older. The reason for this is the various medications used and various problems experienced in the optic nerves.

Certain tests are used for diagnosis. There is no treatment with surgery or medication. Specially manufactured glasses and contact lenses are available to improve patients' quality of life. Thanks to these glasses and lenses, it helps to perceive and distinguish colors more clearly.

What is Color Blindness?

Color blindness is a vision disorder in which certain colors and different tones cannot be perceived. The disease, which is commonly caused by mixing red and green, can rarely be seen as perceiving all tones as gray.

The human eye is sensitive to many things, thanks to the iris layer, which is located just behind the transparent layer of the eye and gives the eye its color. can perceive colors and distinguish them from each other. The lack of various pigments that can be seen in the retina layer or the absence of some pigments at all may cause problems in the perception of some colors or all of them to be seen as shades of grey.

The most common type is the type of color blindness in which red and green cannot be distinguished. The rarest type is when no color can be distinguished and the whole world is seen in black and white.

Most people cannot realize that they are color blind. Early detection of the disease is of great importance in the career choices of children and young people.

Especially red and green are frequently used in signs all over the world. These are important warning signs and can pose a danger to the person if not detected. People with severe color blindness cannot work in various jobs where colors are specifically important.

What are the symptoms of color blindness?

It is thought that people with color blindness cannot see any colors and see the whole world in black and white or shades of a single color. However, this is not true. It is usually not a vision problem that causes obvious symptoms.

Symptoms of color blindness vary depending on complete color blindness and the problem in perceiving a particular color. That's why symptoms vary from person to person.

People with color blindness usually see colors. But they have difficulty distinguishing a certain color or a few colors because they are seen as too faint. These are distinguished according to their density over time. For example; People with red-green color blindness, one of the most common types, perceive red and green as well as mixtures of these colors in the same way.

A rare type of the disease is progressive. This type is complete color blindness and the patient sees the whole world in black and white.

What are the causes of the disease?

Color blindness consists of two basic causes, the first and most common of which is hereditary causes, and the other is external causes such as acquired medication use and long-term exposure to chemicals.

Vision occurs when light of various wavelengths entering the eye focuses on the back of the retina, where vision receptors are densely located, through the cornea and intraocular lens, and the action potentials of these receptors are transmitted to the visual center in the brain via the optic nerves. These receptors are sensitive to each color and are divided into two groups: rods, which enable vision in the dark, and cone receptors, which enable vision in the light. Cone receptors are also divided into 3 and can perceive 3 basic colors, red, blue and green. Any problems that may occur in these three types of receptors cause various problems in the perception of these three colors.

Since color blindness is a hereditary disease, it is more likely to occur at birth in people with a family history of this disease. is high. In its congenital type, it is transmitted via the sex chromosome, generally known as the x chromosome.

It is more common in men because men have a single X chromosome and women have two For these reasons, the transmission of the disease from mother and father differs. It can be transmitted to children even if the mother or father does not have the disease.

The causes of the acquired type of the disease include metal poisoning and metal poisoning, as well as systemic disorders that may occur later, such as optic neuritis, head splits, macular degeneration, damage to the optic nerves. There are also reasons such as the use of certain medications.

How Do Color Blind People See the World?

The question of how color blind people see the world depends on the lack of cone cells. Many people cannot realize that they are color blind on their own. Depending on the level of pigment deficiency, vision may be close to normal or vision corresponding to advanced stages of the disease.

Especially in a place with insufficient lighting, a pale color may be perceived as vivid. Rarely, in advanced stages of the disease, the person can see in black and white.

In the most common type of the disease, that is, hereditary color blindness, green, yellow, orange and red are perceived in the same way. There is a difference in darkness and lightness only depending on their density.

How is the disease diagnosed? What are its types?

Color blindness test and examination is performed through ishihara and a book in which letters consisting of colored dots are read. In the Ishihara test, the patient is expected to identify letters, numbers and various signs within intertwined colors. The test specifically measures the perception of perceiving and distinguishing three primary colors. Another diagnostic method is to mix colored threads together and ask the person with suspicion of the disease to distinguish and group these threads.

People who have problems perceiving colors cannot perform this action. Regular eye check-ups are important for early diagnosis in people with a family history of this disease, especially in children.

Thanks to 3 different types of cone cells, our eyes can perceive red, green and blue and distinguish their shades. Types of the disease are classified according to these indistinguishable colors. It can be classified into 3 different types:

• Green vision impairment, deuteranomalia,
• Red vision impairment, protanopia,
• Blue vision impairment. The disorder is called tritanopia

. If a mixture of all these colors is seen, it is called dichromatic vision. In case of a problem in the receptor cells that allow us to see and distinguish the color red, dark red cannot be distinguished and what is seen may be blue, green or a mixture of these two colors. We can say a similar situation in the absence of cone cells that allow us to perceive other colors.

This type of the disease should not be confused with anopia. Anopia is a type of color blindness where the person has no cones and sees in black and white.

Situations where there is only one cone and the other two cones are absent are called monochromatic vision. For example, if a person only has green color cones and does not have cones that detect red and blue, red-blue color blindness occurs.

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How to Treat Color Blindness?

Since many cases occur due to genetic reasons, such cases cannot be treated with any surgery. The important thing for treatment is to improve the patient's quality of life. Glasses and contact lenses produced with special density for the three main colors greatly improve patients' perception of colors. The patient can see well while using these glasses and contact lenses.

In color blindness that progresses with visual impairment due to damage to the optic nerves, it is possible to correct or stop the progression of visual impairment to some extent. In the type that occurs later due to the drugs used and exposure to chemicals, the problem can be solved with surgical intervention.