Our eyeballs have a front and a back. The front of our eyes (the part we look out of) is called the ‘lens’. People who need to wear glasses usually have some sort of problem with the lens of their eye. The glasses act like an extra lens that corrects the problem in the eyeball’s lens underneath. You may have changes in your lens that have nothing to do with your diabetes.
The back of your eyeball is called your ‘retina’. This is a light sensitive disc that picks up the picture that comes through your lens. The lens and the retina of your eyes work a bit like a movie projector and a screen. The projector is like your lens and the screen is like your retina.
If the lens the picture goes through (the movie projector) is wrongly focused or damaged, the picture on the screen will not be right. This problem can usually be fixed by refocusing the lens (having glasses) or putting a new lens onto the projector (having surgery to remove the old lens and implant a new lens into your eye).
If the screen the picture is projected onto is twisted or has holes or black spots in it the picture will also not be right. Your retina acts like the screen the picture is projected onto. Unfortunately, if your retina (or screen) is damaged this is often harder to fix.
What are the lens and the retina?
