VELI SARITOPRAK : Can we get to know you?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : I am Sibel Şalvarlı. I was born in 1970 in Kocaeli Gölcük. I graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Medicine in 1993. I have been an ophthalmology and surgery specialist since 2000. I have been working in my practice in Ankara.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : Was being a doctor your ideal?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : Yes, when I was 5 years old, I had a very definite and clear answer to those who asked me what I would be when I grew up, I would be a DOCTOR.
I am a daughter of a soldier and my father lost his parents one after the other at a very young age and while he wanted to be a doctor, he found himself in a military boarding school. He always told us to become doctors. I guess I wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember to make him happy because of my love for my father. This innocent desire turned into an ideal over time and I kept my promise and became a doctor.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : Have you ever regretted it?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : I never have, I love my profession very much, I do my job with love and if I were born again, I would choose this sacred profession again.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : So how did you choose ophthalmology? The eye is a very sensitive organ, didn't it scare you?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : The eye is our window to the world and a little giant that contains miracles.
My ideal was to choose a surgical branch. I was always interested in surgeries in medical school. After specializing in general surgery for 2 years, 24 years ago, general surgery was a male-dominated branch and there were not many women in general surgery yet. I can even say that I was one of the first 10 female surgical residents in Turkey at that time.
However, there were many female surgeons in ophthalmology and other branches involving microsurgery at that time and it was not strange. So, with a critical decision, I took the medical specialty exam again and won the eye department with a very high score.
Thus, I took my first step into my profession.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : Wasn't it difficult to open a practice in a period when the number of practicing physicians was gradually decreasing and the practices were closing down one by one?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : The best part of the profession of medicine is that you can practice your profession in your office. I can say that this is actually a blessing for both the physician and the patient. I have been a physician for 25 years. I have been an ophthalmologist for 18 years. During this period, I have worked in many different public and private institutions. I have performed thousands of successful surgeries. Now, I have a serious knowledge and experience in my profession. Bringing a patient back to the light, making a blind person see again is priceless. Being able to allocate enough time to your patients, to examine each patient in the finest detail, almost like an eye check-up, is possible in an office environment. A doctor's office is an environment where you can practice medicine without feeling any pressure, where you can make every decision within ethical values, adhering to the Hippocratic oath. Here, you are the boss and the physician, so you focus only on your work and are accountable only to yourself, and this is the best part of office medicine.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : We said the eye is the little miracle. Which diseases of the eye are you interested in treating?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : In recent years, specialization in ophthalmology has progressed quite seriously. My field of interest is quite comprehensive. I have serious experience and number of operations especially in the fields of excimer laser, cataract surgery, corneal surgery, keratoconus surgery and eye aesthetics, which we call anterior segment surgery. With excimer laser, we save patients who do not want to use glasses or lenses from glasses and lenses by treating them with laser. Cataract surgery has advanced a lot today and it is now possible to save the patient from glasses with astigmatic lenses or multifocal lenses with cataract surgery in appropriate eyes.
Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease that is common in our country and can lead to corneal transplantation if left untreated. Early diagnosis is important and today it is possible to stop the disease. Deformities, sagging, bagging, inward and outward rotations in the eyelid can be treated with oculoplastic surgery.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : What are the most common eye diseases according to age groups? For example in children?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : Strabismus and lazy eye are common in children and 3-4 years of age is critical. Every child should be taken for an eye check-up around the age of 3. Because eye disorders caught at this age can be treated with glasses and closure. However, if the disorder is not detected and is detected after the age of 6-7, unfortunately, a condition called lazy eye occurs and its treatment is very difficult and even impossible after the age of 6-7.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : I get asked a lot, are tablets, computers and cell phones harmful?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : In recent years, the disease of our age is myopia due to the fact that cell phones, tablets and computers have been in the hands of children since infancy. This is a serious problem that threatens the new generation. Now myopia occurs more frequently in childhood and progresses faster.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : We often hear about dry eye, what is the reason?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : Dry eye disease is very common in young people and working people, women during menopause, rheumatism patients and recently even in children. Excessive use of computers, tablets, cell phones, air conditioners, heaters, air pollution, hormone changes due to menopause in women, antidepressants, some acne medications are effective in dry eye formation. Rheumatism is also a serious cause of dry eye and rheumatic diseases should be investigated especially in those with joint pain, dry mouth and dry eyes.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : Which diseases are more common in the 40s?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : Eye pressure and presbyopia (near vision impairment) are common between the ages of 40-45.
Eye pressure is a serious danger that gives no symptoms and can result in blindness. The risk is 4-5 times higher in those with a family history of eye pressure compared to the normal population. Around the age of 40, eye pressure controls should be performed. If the disease is not recognized, it causes permanent damage to the visual nerve and is the cause of irreversible blindness.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : What is yellow spot disease, another disease we hear about very often?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : It is a disease that causes deposits or bleeding in the visual center of the retina, which we call macula. Over the age of 60, yellow spot disease, which is increasing day by day, is a problem that threatens vision. Although the cause of yellow spot disease is not known exactly, smoking and nutritional errors are blamed. Antioxidants, dark green vegetables and a vegetable-based diet are recommended for treatment. There are dry and wet types and drug injections are made into the eye in the hemorrhagic, i.e. wet type.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : Which diseases affect the eye?
SİBEL ŞALVARLI : Diabetes is the most important systemic disease affecting the eye and diabetics should have regular eye examinations. However, the most important thing is to keep blood sugar under control. Sugar causes serious new vascular formations in the retina, which we call the mesh layer of the eye, and these new vessels result in bleeding in the eye and loss of vision. Early diagnosis is important, but if blood sugar is not regulated, treatment may be impossible. Hypertension can also cause bleeding and vascular occlusions in the eye.
VELİ SARITOPRAK : What would you say is the miracle of ophthalmology?
SBEL SHALVARLI : It is only possible to see the vessels and nerves in the web layer of the eye. With a detailed eye examination, the ophthalmologist can see the vessels in the retina and the part of the optic nerve inside the eye, this is our miracle. Color changes, narrowing, widening or tortuosity in the vessels that we can see help us to learn about the vascular system in the body. Sometimes an ophthalmologist is the first to diagnose a patient's blood pressure or diabetes.
Likewise, a pallor or swelling of the optic nerve or impaired light reflexes may indicate neurological diseases or even a brain tumor. A careful eye examination is vital for the early detection of not only eye but also other diseases. Throughout my professional life, I have been instrumental in the early diagnosis of neurological diseases and even brain tumors many times and in this way, I have touched the lives of many patients with early diagnosis. In these cases, one feels what a sacred profession he has and does his job even more lovingly.
