Ophthalmology is the area of medical science that focuses on the eyes, how they work and what could go wrong with them. This branch of medical science also deals with various cures of conditions that affect the eye.

Ophthalmology is a very intricate area of the science of the human body because it is concerned with the eyes, what the structure of the human eyes is, how they function and operate and also any diseases which they can be affected by. There are also parts of it which main concern is how the messages get from the eye to the brain, but this isn't the main focus of the science.

The eye works in a very complicated and yet brilliant way for such a small organ of the body. Light enters the eye form the outside world, having been reflected off everything in it, and comes in through the cornea, which acts as a clear screen to protect the iris and more importantly the pupil (the pupil being the small colored part in the middle of the iris) and this is where the light passes through next. There is a crystalline lens directly behind the iris which helps to focus the light so that it can be interpreted once it reaches the retina after having passed through both the vitreous humor and the macula which make up the main bulk of the interior of the eye. The retina is the processing centre of the eye and is a very clever part of the human body and a lot of ophthalmology is based around the retina as it is the part which turns the light rays into electrical impulses which can be sent to the brain.

The eye is very well developed, such as the way that the iris changes its size, depending on the intensity of the light and also the distance from the eye to the object which the person is trying to focus on because this helps focus the light ideally onto the retina.

Ophthalmology is also about the diseases of the eye, which can occur, such as cataracts. This is where the lens of the eye becomes clouded which stops the light getting through the cornea or the iris meaning that the image perceived by the retina will not be as clear or accurate as it would have once been. Other diseases in the eye are caused by problems with the layer of nerves at the back of the eye which deliver the signals to the brain. These conditions include glaucoma (which is where damages to the optic nerve are caused by excess pressure in the eye itself) and also many other retinal disorders. Another condition which can occur in the eye is conjunctivitis.