Should I Buy Those Cheap/Fake Sunglasses?

Many times when walking along the streets and in some stores I have been distracted and pulled by the cheap sunglasses stand. They look sleek and always convince myself nobody would even notice I’m wearing cheap glasses. The thought of any damage that can be cause by them is normally out of question, does not even ring my mind. Just out of curiosity I wanted to find out how cheap are those cheap sunglasses? Will my eyes be damaged from wearing such sunglasses? How does the eye respond to different light conditions?

The eye regulates the amount of light entering it by adjusting the size of the
pupil. The pupil is the central dark window formed in our eyes by the Iris. At the center, the Iris has a circular window called the Pupil which normally measures about 3-4 mm in diameter.

When exposed to bright light, the pupil constricts to just about 2 mm in diameter or less hence restricting the amount of light entering our eyes. When we go out in the sun, our pupils constrict so that the excessive light is cut off to avoid discomfort.

When we enter a dark room, or the sun goes down, the reverse happens. Because the light reaching our eye is too less for us to see well, the pupil dilates  to about 5-6mm. This helps us to see better in the dark.

You can now imagine what happens when we put on a dark glass while going out in the sun. The dark lenses cut off the light entering our eye, and our pupil dilates hence allowing more light into the eye.

But dark glasses only do not block out the Ultraviolet Radiation (UV Rays) in the light. UV Rays cause severe damage to our retina. They are known to cause macular degeneration, Macular Hole, Cataract, Pterygium, etc.

When you wear dark glasses without UV filter, more lights passes through the eye, allowing the dangerous UV rays through. This damages the eye completely with time, ultimately paying a bigger price of your own sight.

It is therefore imperative that the dark glasses we use should have a UV filtering capacity. If UV protection is not available on the dark glasses that you wear, it is better to go out into the sun without them at all than to wear them.

It is good to wear UV protective sunglasses while out in the sun. Sunglasses without UV protection must be avoided at all costs as they are more damaging to the eye.