A lot of us never think about the fact that our eyes work and we can see accurately enough to fully enjoy life. But the human eye is an incredibly complicated and delicate part of the body and we should be particularly grateful to those medical consultants who care for our vision.

The proper term for the medical area of expertise relating to the eye is ophthalmology – an blend of two Greek words which directly translate as ‘the science of eyes’. Since the human eye can need both medical and surgical attention, ophthalmologists are qualified as specialists in both fields.

Even back in 800 BCE, those who took an interest had enough knowledge of the human eye to manage to diagnose a lot of eye diseases and to have come up with appropriate surgical processes and equipment to manage to treat some conditions, and over the centuries scientists and specialists have continued to increase their knowledge of eyes and created treatments for many problems.

Back in 1805, the first ever dedicated ophthalmic hospital opened its doors in London, and it lives on in 2011 under its famous title of Moorfields Eye Hospital. The hospital is now a world renown centre of excellence for continuing research to improve even further the diagnosis and treatment of all illnesses and other complaints that might have an impact on the human eye.

In order to become an ophthalmologist, a medical student will complete several years of intensive specialist training, working in conjunction with qualified ophthalmologists to gain the essential skills before finally becoming a consultant. Many consultant ophthalmologists become specialists in aspects of the eye which are of special interest to them and will hold specialist surgeries for patients with those particular complaints.

Many people actually don’t know just how much more an ophthalmologist can do as opposed to the optician who we see for basic eye tests and for prescriptions for glasses or contact lenses. But for any problems that involve actual surgery – either a conventional operation or Laser eye surgery, an optician has to pass on the patient to an ophthalmologist to have treatment.

Once a patient is seen by the expert consultant, a lot of sorts of eye treatments can be undertaken. Advances in technology in recent times mean that the range of diagnosis, and therefore treatment, continues to get better and better and a lot of surgical treatments now are undertaken at an outpatients appointment using a local anaesthetic instead of the patient having to be hospitalised for any period of time. Some of the most effective changes have been prompted by the increasing employment of Laser eye treatments, as these simply use the Laser eye beam to treat the affected part of the eye, as an alternative to having to use actual surgical equipment, which leads to far less likelihood of problems or infection.

A lot of the more complex vision complaints can clearly be related to other health problems, and so the ophthalmologist will work closely with the other specialists who are providing treatment. And naturally, a lot of problems with the eyes including cataracts and glaucoma tend to be age related, so there must be a good knowledge of other problems which can affect the more mature patient – not necessarily issues relating directly to the eye complaint, but problems including mobility or breathing difficulties.

Luckily, most people live their lives with their only vision problems being the need to wear glasses or contact lenses at some point in time. But for those who have more complicated eye complaints, it is comforting to know that treatment is continuing to evolve and become better every year, whether it be more precise Laser eye surgery, more delicate equipment for cataract removal or quicker diagnosis and treatment of more difficult problems.

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