Color blindness is a vision disorder in which a person has difficulty or inability to distinguish certain colors, especially green and red. This change is in most cases genetic, however it can also arise as a consequence of injuries to the structure of the eyes or the neurons responsible for vision.
The diagnosis of color blindness, which is also known as dyschromatopsia or dyschromatopsia, is made by an ophthalmologist through tests that allow the person’s ability to differentiate colors to be assessed.
Thus, the ophthalmologist can indicate the most appropriate treatment that can be carried out with the use of glasses for color blindness, for example, or lifestyle adaptations so that one can have a life close to normal and without difficulties.
Main symptoms of color blindness
The main symptoms of color blindness are:
- Difficulty distinguishing colors, being more common with the colors green and red;
- Difficulty or inability to perceive the difference between shades of the same color;
- Sensitivity to light;
- Difficulty perceiving the brightness of colors;
- Headache or pain in the eyes, when looking at colors on different backgrounds, such as green on a red background, or red on a green background, for example.
In children, color blindness can be noticed by family members or teachers at school, through some signs, such as difficulty, lack of attention or interest when reading colored pages, or drawing or coloring with the wrong colors, for example.
These symptoms of color blindness can be mild, often going unnoticed by the person, but they can also be serious, and lead to uncontrolled movements of the eyes from one side to the other, called nystagmus.
Therefore, it is important to consult an ophthalmologist so that color blindness can be diagnosed and the most appropriate treatment can be initiated, if necessary.
Why does it happen?
Color blindness generally occurs due to a genetic change in the which are responsible for activating reactions that send information about colors to the brain.
This genetic change is hereditary, which means that color blindness is more common to occur within the same family, as mutations on the X chromosome can be passed from parents to children, being more common to occur in boys, as they only have one chromosome. X.
Furthermore, although it is rarer, color blindness can also occur due to some health problems that can cause visual changes, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, sickle cell anemia, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease, or due to the use of medications, such as phenytoin, natural aging of the body, or exposure to chemicals such as carbon disulfide or toluene.
How to confirm the diagnosis
The diagnosis of color blindness is made by an ophthalmologist through the evaluation of symptoms, health history, family history of color blindness and the color test, which consists of identifying numbers or paths that are present in images with different color patterns.
Color tests, such as the Ishihara test or the Farnsworth test, allow the ophthalmologist to identify the degree of change and the type of color blindness. Check out all the color blindness tests that can be done by your doctor.
Main types of color blindness
According to the tests carried out by the ophthalmologist and the person’s ability to identify what is contained in the images, the doctor can confirm the diagnosis and indicate the type of color blindness the person has, namely:
- Achromatic color blindness: also known as monochromacy, it is the rarest type of color blindness, in which the person sees in black, white and gray, not seeing other colors;
- Dichromatic color blindness: the person does not have a color receptor and, therefore, cannot identify the colors red, green or blue;
- Trichromatic color blindness: It is the most common type, where the person has a slight difficulty in distinguishing colors since the person has all the color receptors but they do not work well. The colors that are usually affected are red, green and blue with their different shades.
The types of color blindness are classified according to the difficulty in seeing a certain set of colors, and must always be diagnosed by an ophthalmologist.
How the treatment is carried out
There is no cure for color blindness, however the treatment recommended by an ophthalmologist can improve the person’s quality of life, and may be recommended:
1. ADD system to identify colors
Learning the color identification system called ADD is the best way to live with color blindness. This system catalogs each color with a symbol, helping people suffering from color blindness to ‘see’ colors in a simple way, increasing their self-esteem and improving their quality of life.
While this system has not yet become mandatory, what can be done is to ask for help from someone who is not color blind to help write the appropriate symbol on the labels of clothes and shoes, as well as on pens and colored pencils so that whenever Colorblind people see the symbols and know how to identify their color.
The ADD coding system is similar to the Braille language for visually impaired people and has been used in some countries.
2. Glasses for color blind people
A good way to live with color blindness is to buy special glasses for color blindness, which adapt the colors so that the color blind person sees the colors as they really are.
There are 2 types of lenses, one of them is recommended for people who cannot see red colors, which is the Cx-PT model, and the other for those who cannot see green, which is the Cx-D model. However, glasses that can be recommended for those who cannot identify all colors have not yet been created.
