My boyfriend is colour blind.
If he can, he wants to get it corrected. But everywhere I look for information, I just get tests for colour blindness.
I was wondering if there's any way of correcting colour blindness, and where can I go to get more information about correction of this?
Colour blindness isn't correctable, since it's caused by an inherited defect of the light sensitive pigment in special cells – called cone cells in the retina at the back of the eye.
Sometimes there's a reduction in the number of these cone cells as well.
The commonest types of hereditary colour vision deficiency are green and red deficiencies.
The condition is much more common in males than females, although women can carry the defect and pass it on to their children without being affected themselves.
In white Europeans, 8 per cent and less than 1 per cent of females have either green or red deficiency.
As I say, your boyfriend is always going to be colour blind, and while this does not normally affect clarity of vision, it can cause significant problems with using everyday objects and foods.
It does mean that sufferers can be excluded from undertaking certain jobs such as a pilot, train driver or electrician because of their inability to distinguish certain colours and the fact that colour blindness would make these professions potentially hazardous.
For further information you may wish to contact Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
The NetDoctor Medical Team
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