Why do eye surgeons wear glasses?, asks Dr Leigh Spielberg.

“So you’re an eye surgeon?” is a frequent question that we are often asked in social situations. It opens a conversation that is generally quite standard, but occasionally takes an interesting turn. Usually, the question that follows is, “So why do you still wear glasses? I thought all eye doctors would definitely get their eyes lasered? Do you not trust the procedure? I guess you’ve seen all the ways it can go wrong, huh? Do you think I should get my eyes lasered? I’ve always wanted to get my eyes lasered, because I’m tired of dealing with contact lenses and I don’t look good with glasses. But I’m too scared! I can’t imagine a laser shooting my eyeball while I’m awake. There’s no way I could keep my eyes open for that long. But so many of my friends have had it done, so it can’t be that bad. Who’s a good surgeon? I’d only want the best to treat my eyes. Do you do laser surgery?” I frequently can’t even get a word in, so I’ll just stand and listen, to see whether this new person delivering this monologue is actually interested in hearing my opinion on refractive laser surgery, which is very positive, or is instead simply interested in discussing it without forming any conclusions. But I don’t find a cocktail party or wedding to necessarily be the best moment to dispense medical advice. And anyway, refractive surgery isn’t my field of expertise. “I do a different type of laser surgery, a type that I hope you never have to undergo,” I’ll say, referring to retinal lasers in the context of a retinal tear or a vitrectomy for retinal detachment. PLEASE PASS ME THE WINE Another route of inquiry involves the details of how eye surgery is performed, which to most people, especially the young, is unbearably grisly. “How do you take the eye out to operate on it? Do you remove it completely, or just pull it out of the patient’s head so that you can get behind it? When you make holes in the eye, how come everything inside doesn’t just leak right out? And how do you see what you’re doing? It’s all so small! What if your hand trembles? Eye surgeons must have really steady hands.” I tell them that we use microscopes that make the eye look the size of a large dinner plate. Seeing everything is no problem at all. I suppose most eye surgeons were born with reasonably tremor-free fine motor coordination. But tremor also something that simply wanes with experience, confidence and a relaxed state of mind. The eye fascinates most people, and is right up there with the heart as an organ that captures peoples’ imagination. And yet it remains a mystery for most people, something that they prefer to think about in more abstract terms. “The eye is a beautiful thing,” I’ll sometimes say to end this line of conversation on an uplifting note. “So, do you have any interesting vacations planned? And can you please pass me the wine?” Dr Leigh Spielberg is a vitreoretinal and cataract surgeon at Ghent University Hospital in Belgium