Home › From other towns › Sawantwadi: eye check-up and spectacles

Eye check-up and spectacles for patients from Sawantwadi: glasses for close work and study

Sawantwadi's wooden toys, lacquer work and Ganjifa cards are painted by hand, a few centimetres from the eyes, for hours. Tailors, goldsmiths, students and shopkeepers in the town do close work all day too. When near vision starts to fade, usually from about 40, the right spectacles make the difference between struggling and working comfortably. ReNew Vision Eye Hospital is in Vasco, Goa, not in Sawantwadi: 2nd floor, Pai Hospital building, Vaddem Merces Road, Vaddem, Vasco da Gama.

Spectacles for close craft work

Ordinary reading glasses are set for about the distance of a book. Painting, carving or threading a needle may need a different, often closer, working distance. At the check-up:

• tell the eye doctor and the Vision Correction Centre exactly what you do, and how far from your eyes you hold the work; measure it with a tape at home if you can;
• if you look up often, at a customer or across the workshop, ask about bifocal, progressive or office lenses that give more than one distance;
• good light matters as much as the lens: a bright lamp aimed at the work from the side, not behind you.

Read reading glasses after 40 and progressive or bifocal lenses.

Rest breaks for working eyes

Long close work tires the focusing muscles and reduces blinking, so the eyes ache and the work blurs by evening. Every 20 minutes, look out of the window or across the room for 20 seconds, and blink fully a few times. Headaches that come with close work, or eyes that water and burn, are a reason for a check-up, not just stronger glasses from a shop.

Students preparing for exams

Students who study for long hours, or on phones and laptops, often find that their distance vision slips; short sight can start or increase in the teens. If the board, bus numbers or faces across the road look blurred, a test sorts it out. Contact lenses can be fitted for older students, with careful teaching about hygiene; see contact lenses.

What the check-up includes

The vision and spectacle power test, the eye pressure, and an examination of the front of the eye, the lens and the retina, often after drops that widen the pupils. After 40, the pressure check and the retina examination matter as much as the power. More on the complete eye check-up.

How to get to Vasco from Sawantwadi

By car, about 82 km: south through Banda and across the border at Patradevi on NH 66, then past Pernem and through Mapusa, Porvorim and Panjim, over the new Zuari bridge to Cortalim and along the Vasco road (NH 366). Allow about two hours. ST and KTC buses run between Sawantwadi and Panjim, where KTC shuttles leave for Vasco; Konkan Railway trains run from Sawantwadi Road to Madgaon, about 27 km by road from Vasco. We can collect you from your home and drop you back, at zero cost to the patient. Call 072489 88039, and see coming from another town.

Planning the visit

• The Eye OPD runs Monday to Saturday, 4 pm to 7 pm, Friday included; Sunday OPD is closed.
• Leave Sawantwadi by about 1:30 to 2 pm, especially if dilating drops may be used.
• After drops, the person who had them should not drive or ride back; vision is blurred for a few hours and the return is after dark.
• Bring your current spectacles, an example of your work or the book you read, and any old prescriptions.
• Ask when the spectacles will be ready; if you are in Goa for a few days, you may be able to collect them before going home.

Questions patients ask

I paint toys all day. Do I need special spectacles?

Often, yes. Your working distance may be closer than a book. Tell the eye doctor and the Vision Correction Centre what you do and how far you hold the work, so the lens power suits it.

Are shop reading glasses enough for tailoring?

They give both eyes the same power and do not check your eye health. A proper test gives each eye the right power for your working distance and checks the pressure and retina.

How do I reach ReNew Vision from Sawantwadi by bus?

ST and KTC buses run between Sawantwadi and Panjim. From Panjim, take a KTC shuttle to Vasco, then an auto-rickshaw about a kilometre to Vaddem.

Can I get my spectacles before going back to Sawantwadi?

Ask when they will be ready. If you are staying in Goa for a day or two, you may be able to collect them before you leave.

Is ReNew Vision in Sawantwadi?

No. ReNew Vision Eye Hospital is only in Vaddem, Vasco da Gama, Goa, about 82 km from Sawantwadi.

This page is general eye-health information, not personal medical advice. Your eye doctor advises you after examining your eyes.