A good book deserves good eyesight

Part of the “Pefect Vision” team consisting of Dr. Jelena Todorović, Zorica Popin, Marija Bošković, headed by Dr. Branka Ivošević participated in the Book Fair held from 18-24. March 2025 in Novi Sad . This significant cultural manifestation was a good opportunity to give valuable advice and recommendations to many, and refer individuals to targeted diagnostic procedures due to suspicion of certain eye diseases. We are extremely glad that the need for this type of dialogue has been recognized , emphasized Dr. Ivošević.

Our mission is to preserve healthy vision and improve the quality of life of the citizens of Serbia.

Dr. Branka Ivošević , an ophthalmologist with thirty years of experience, at the head of the “Perfect Vision” team, which includes 13 ophthalmologists, including 7 surgeons, dedicatedly points out the importance of preventive vision examinations, due to numerous misconceptions that you only go to the doctor when you are sick, and gives professional guidelines on how to protect and preserve vision.

Ophthalmological examinations begin at birth, with the first examination of a newborn in the maternity hospital, and then in the third and fourth year. Vision checks are then recommended for school children, the working population, especially around the age of 40, when the well-known senile farsightedness begins, so “hands become shorter” .

This examination should not be performed in an optician’s office, which is a common practice in Serbia, because it is superficial and is reduced only to the determination of diopters, but in medical ophthalmological institutions where the examination is performed by a specialist ophthalmologist.

A complete ophthalmological examination includes:

• vision check (diopters),
• measuring eye pressure,
• examination of the front and back of the eye with dilated pupils.

During such an examination, an ophthalmologist can detect very insidious diseases:

• glaucoma – a disease of elevated eye pressure, which is often detected late, in the stage of severe vision and visual field damage that we can no longer treat (that’s why ophthalmologists call it the “silent killer of vision” ),
• Cataract (cataract) – occurs in middle and old age, a condition that leads to clouding of the lens, present in people 40+.

I have to mention a big misconception because patients often come to us late, with very hard cataracts with the belief that the cataract needs to mature in order to be operated on, which are outdated attitudes.

Today, we advise patients exactly the opposite – it is preferable to operate on cataracts in the initial stage.
That is why we recommend to patients after the age of 40 a complete ophthalmological examination once a year , in order to detect this condition in time and operate, with a quick recovery and a minimal risk of operative and postoperative complications.

After the age of 60, the so-called senile macular degeneration (yellow spots) – a disease of the central part of the retina (retina). These people should also undergo an eye examination once a year in order to detect and treat the disease in a timely manner, in order to prevent central blindness, i.e. loss of reading vision.