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Comment by rjsw | Hacker News Reader

I'm guessing this is something specific to the US.

Yes, the FDA is a US-only institution. Full name is: U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

I was commenting on the original title, I meant that being unable to drive due to the after affects of some unknown procedure is a US specific thing.

It is not, at least not since I've had my eyes dilated in exams (every year or every other for the past 25 years). OP was editorializing. There is no mandated minimum time between dilation and driving, though obviously people should be cautious if dilation strongly impacts their vision. For me, I'm usually back to "normal" (near vision still sucks, but I don't read books while driving; far vision is fine) by the time I've finished ordering new lenses and paying.

Why do you need your eyes dilated? It isn't something that is done in the UK.

My vision is very, very bad. Eye dilation is to allow the doctor to examine the retinas, in my case. Though as others have pointed out they're doing more digital imaging these days and that doesn't require dilation. My doctor now dilates my eyes every other year.

If your vision is normal (or not as abnormal as mine) and you aren't at high risk of various eye health issues (diabetic, family history, high blood pressure) then there's little need for dilation in an eye exam.

My eye checks every other year have had a retinal exam component for as long as I can remember, never been given any drugs to affect the pupil diameter though.

That was what they did for me until my eyes exceeded about -8 or -9 diopters of correction (late high school, not sure where it was exactly when they started dilating them but in that range), then they introduced dilation as a regular thing.

It's considered good practice to get regular eye exams for catching problems inside the eye, and the most common way of doing an eye exam is by shining a bright light inside the eye and viewing it with a magnifier. The illumination only works if pupils can't accommodate. NB in the USA nobody I know does get regular eye exams but we should especially later in life because some types of macular degeneration can be slowed down somewhat with various therapies

_raises hand_ Hello! I, and my extended family, have gotten yearly eye exams for at least as long as I've been alive.

Not sure what the original title was, but when I've had my eyes dilated for eye exams in the past, I have no problem driving home immediately.

It is commonplace for eye doctors to hand out these ugly sunglasses to patients who have their eyes dilated, so they can continue on with their day: https://www.proopticsgroup.com/cdn/shop/products/G100_New_20...

It's a pretty common procedure worldwide; an ophthalmologist dilates the patient's pupils with eyedrops to be able to look inside them with a bright light and inspect for problems. Then afterwords the patient is sensitive to light for a few hours which impacts driving and everything else. Sunglasses work but the people most likely to see an eye doctor are those with glasses, and corrective sunglasses are pretty rare. Some eye doctors give out dark tinted face shield type things. The pupil-dilating drug is an anticholinergic like belladonna which has been known about for thousands of years (cf. name "belladonna" from the plant's use to dilate pupils as a cosmetic for "pretty ladies")

(typically an anticholinergic like beladonna which has been known about for thousands of years)

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