Types of Color Blindness

Color blindness is a type of color related vision problem, rather than a lack of vision. Instead, the person with color blindness has deficiencies in the color sensitive cone cells in their eyes. These cone cells are responsible for detecting color. The cone cells either detect green, red, or blue light. There are several types of color blindness.

When one or some of the cone cells either do not work, are not there, or are lacking in number, the result can be a decrease in color sensitivity. All colors are made of some combination of the three primary ones. In a color-blind person, they may not be able to see some color combinations, or may not be able to see any color at all.

Common color blindness is red-green color blindness. People with this type of color blindness cannot distinguish between red and green colors. There are several degrees of severity in red-green color blindness. Some people can see shades of the colors, while others cannot see the colors at all. Often the colors can be distinguished if they are different shades.

Different types of color blindness also include protanopia, where a person cannot see the color red. This loss of color detection comes from a person with protanopia having cone cells that are unable to detect long wavelengths of light, which include red coloring. Red color shows as being more of a beige or neutral color in people with protanopia.

Other types of color blindness include deuteranopia, the inability to distinguish between greens, yellows, and reds. Deuteranomaly is another type wherein the person has a reduced sensitivity to the color green, and other colors in that spectrum. In people with deuteranomaly color blindness, the intensities of the colors are not changed. Tritanopia is a blue-yellow color blindness that is one of the more rare types of color blindness.

A very rare type of color blindness is monochromacy, the inability to distinguish any colors at all. One type of monochromacy is called cone monochromacy, where vision is otherwise normal but only one type of cone cell is in operation, causing a lack of distinction between any colors. Achromatopsia is a type of color blindness that involves the rods in the eye and people with it have no cone cells at all. People with achromatopsia have light sensitivity as well.

Since there are so many types of color blindness, it is often difficult to diagnose and may take several visits to an experienced eye doctor. Many color blindness tests are taken in childhood, between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. An early and specific diagnosis can help in adapting the child to their unique vision problems.

Only with an experienced color blindness eye doctor can a long lasting and effective treatment plan be made. While there is no cure for genetic color blindness, there are several ways a person who has the vision problem can adapt to their environments and live long and productive lives.