Explore Cirta Tooth's contribution to the scientific community, her range of educational articles, and other publications.
Cirta Tooth enjoys researching topics that she comes across in her everyday practice, to further her knowledge and understanding. She conducts audits and surveys to improve her service in her private clinic as well as the NHS clinics she works for.
The first section on this page lists her publications in peer-reviewed papers.
The second section contains educational articles for eye care professionals, which she has written for the Optician Magazine and for Optometry Today. Anyone interested to learn more about low vision or cerebral vision impairment can read and learn from these publications.
In the final section you will find other publications, ranging from interviews to observations from a eye care projects in Africa with Vision Aid Overseas (now Vision Action).
Publications in Peer-reviewed Journals
2025
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Cirta Tooth conducted an audit in the NHS paediatric clinic with assistance from Juliusz Rogowski, a medical student. They concluded that children with additional support needs are at risk of missing appropriate eye care due to incomplete screening tests and missed follow-up appointments in the hospital eye service. More could be done to make eye care more accessible for this vulnerable group.
2024
Tooth, C., Pilling, R.F. and Woodhouse, M. 2024. Raising awareness of cerebral visual impairment (CVI) through the use of educational videos: One size does not fit all. British Journal of Vision Impairment. https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231225081
As part of her Masters degree in Clinical Optometry, Cirta Tooth conducted a survey among educational and eye care professionals to compare three short videos about CVI. The project was supervised by Dr Maggie Woodhouse from Cardiff University and professor Rachel Pilling from Bradford University. One of the videos was created by Cirta Tooth and can be watched here:
2022
Tooth Cirta and Cackett Peter. 2022. Vision impairment: To register or not to register? That is the question. British Journal of Vision Impairment, pp.1-12.
Cirta Tooth conducted a survey among ophthalmologists across Scotland to learn more about their understanding of the benefits, the criteria and the process of certification of sight impairment. Confidence about certification criteria was significantly higher for ocular conditions, compared to neurological conditions. The article was co-authored by Peter Cackett, a consultant ophthalmologist at the hospital eye service.
Tooth, Cirta. 2022. Impaired recognition of faces. Royal College of Ophthalmologists- Focus Article. January 2022.
https://www.rcophth.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/College-News-January-2022-FOCUS.pdf
Cirta Tooth was invited by the editor to write a Focus article for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists about impaired face recognition. Face recognition difficulties are common among people with ocular or neurological sight impairment.
2019
Moshtael, Howard; Tooth, Cirta; Antje Nuthmann et al. 2019. Dynamic text presentation on smart glasses: A pilot evaluation in age-related macular degeneration. British Journal of Visual Impairment 38(1) pp. 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264619619889998
Cirta Tooth assisted a PhD student in a project about smart glasses for people with a visual impairment due to macular degeneration. Different text presentations were compared to see if reading speed could be improved for this patient group.
CPD Articles for Eye Care Professionals
2025
Watch this space
2024
Tooth, Cirta. 2024. Low vision: A quick guide for optometrists and dispensing opticians. We invited specialist optometrist Cirta Tooth to put together a simple to follow guide for ECPs wishing to improve their offerings for low vision patients. Optician, pp. 22-25.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/opti.2024.269.6961.22
Cirta Tooth was invited by the editor to write a 'quick guide for optometrists and dispensing opticians' about low vision.
Cirta Tooth produced an introduction video about low vision, which can be watched in our 'Videos' section:
Tooth, Cirta. 2024. Emotional impact of sight loss: What can we learn from lived experience? Specialist optometrist Cirta Tooth considers the emotional ramifications of sight loss for patients and how ECPs can help. Optician 2024, pp. 23-28.
www.opticianonline.net/content/features/the-emotional-impact-of-sight-loss
Emotional impact of sight loss
2023
Tooth, Cirta. 2023. An introduction to cerebral visual impairment in children 4: Supporting children with CVI. In the final part of this series looking at an important cause of visual impairment in children, Cirta Tooth outlines how children with cerebral visual impairment can be supported. Optician 2019 (11), pp. 18-24.
Part 4: Supporting children with CVI
Tooth, Cirta. 2023. An introduction to cerebral visual impairment in children 3: Impact on learning and development. In the third of a four part series looking at an important cause of visual impairment in children, Cirta Tooth outlines how CVI affects children’s development. Optician. 268, pp. 14-17.
Part 3: Impact of CVI on learning and development
Tooth, Cirta. 2023. An introduction to cerebral visual impairment in children 2: Diagnosing cerebral visual impairment. In the second of a four part series, Cirta Tooth outlines how to diagnose cerebral visual impairment. Optician 268 (Number 6916), pp. 19-24.
Part 2: Diagnosing CVI
Tooth, Cirta. 2023. An introduction to cerebral visual impairment in children 1: Definitions, visual dysfunctions and prevalence. In the first of a four part series looking at an important cause of visual impairment in children, Cirta Tooth explains the nature of cerebral visual impairment. Optician 268 (Number 6911), pp. 26-29.
Part 1: Definitions, visual dysfunctions and prevalence of CVI
Tooth, Cirta. 2023. Should optometrists be able to certify patients for visual impairment? Cirta Tooth considers the results of a new study of ophthalmologist attitudes to optometrists being able to certify patients as being sight impaired or severely sight impaired. Optician 267 (Number 6908), pp. 28-3.
Certification for sight impairment: The role of the optometrist
2022
Tooth, Cirta. 2022. Optimising trainee learning in specialist clinics. One area of eye care, cited by trainees and SCPs alike, where further training would be useful is that of low vision practice. But what do they want to learn about low vision and how can this be supported? Cirta Tooth takes a closer look. Optician 266 (6871), pp. 32-36.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/opti.2022.266.6871.32
Workplace training for optometry students in a low vision clinic
Tooth, Cirta. 2022. Our mind’s eye: Fantasy, mental imagery and aphantasia. Cirta Tooth reviews a condition that can significantly impact upon vision and presents a case study by way of illustration. Optician 266 (6865), pp. 24-29.
Aphantasia: Visual imagery
Tooth, Cirta. 2022. Sight impairment: To refer or not to refer? That is the question.- Cirta Tooth takes a look at sight impairment registration and what knowledge and skills can help the eye care professional to decide for which patients a referral is warranted for certification. Optician 265 (Number 6848), pp.19-25.
Referring for sight impairment registration
Tooth, Cirta. 2022. Alzheimer’s disease and vision- Cirta Tooth describes the impact upon vision and offers two case studies illustrating how both basic and higher processing function can be affected. Optician 265 (Number 6858), pp.19-23.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/opti.2022.2.8877
Alzheimer's disease and vision
2021
Tooth, Cirta. 2021. What can we learn from a service evaluation in a hospital low vision clinic? Cirta Tooth discusses an analysis of the activities of a Scottish hospital low vision service and reflects on what lessons might be learned regarding the best approach to managing people with vision loss. Optician 264 (Number 6830), pp. 21-27.
Low vision audit in a hospital eye clinic
Tooth, Cirta. 2021. Prosopagnosia: When a familiar face becomes a stranger. Cirta Tooth describes the causes of, challenges from and compensation for impaired face recognition (C79589). Optician 264(Number 6828), pp. 18-26.
Prosopagnosia: impaired face recognition
Tooth, Cirta. 2021. Macula, magnifiers and more. This article describes the impact of visual impairment on patients with age-related macular degeneration and how this can be managed (C78030). Optometry Today 61(1), pp.7 0-73.
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/cpd/2021/04/29/macula-magnifiers-and-more/article
Impact of sight loss in macular degeneration
Tooth, Cirta. 2021. Is colour vision relevant to optometric practice? In a companion article to her review of the impact of contrast sensitivity on everyday life (Optician 12.03.21), Cirta Tooth discusses reasons why colour vision testing can play an important role in detecting pathology and in understanding the impact of pathology on task performance and daily functioning (C77936). Optician 263, pp. 22-28.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/opti.2021.4.8526
The role of colour vision in diagnosis and the impact and management of impaired colour vision
Tooth, Cirta. 2021. Is contrast sensitivity relevant to optometric practice? Cirta Tooth discusses the role of contrast sensitivity in detecting pathology and how common eye diseases affect it and considers how this impact affects performance in undertaking everyday visual tasks (C 77629). Optician 263 (Number 6793), pp. 24-29.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/opti.2021.3.8515
The role of contrast sensitivity in diagnosis and the impact and management of impaired contrast sensitivity
Tooth, Cirta. 2021. From pathology to participation: Cirta Tooth discusses how the medical model meets the social model in a low vision clinic and the implications upon patient management by the eye care professional (C 773955). Optician 263 (Number 6789), pp. 20-26.
Medical and social model of care
2020
Tooth, Cirta. 2020. Dual sensory impairment: Assessment and management: In the second of her two articles highlighting deafness awareness, Cirta Tooth focuses upon dual sensory loss and the best approach to communicating with the deaf-blind when dealing with their eye care (C76541). Optician 262, pp.21-25.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/opti.2020.10.8336?journalCode=opti
Dual sensory loss Part 2: Assessment and management
Tooth, Cirta. 2020. Now I can see what you are saying. In the first of two articles highlighting deaf awareness, Cirta Tooth discusses creating a welcoming environment and facilitating communication with people with a hearing impairment in optometric practice (C76270) Optician 262 (Number 6770), pp. 21-25.
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/opti.2020.9.8319
Dual sensory loss Part 1: Supporting good communication
Tooth, Cirta. 2020. Visual impairment, employment and empowerment: This article describes the impact of visual impairment in the workplace and the role that practitioners can play in helping these patients Optometry Today 60 (7), pp. 74-77.
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/cpd/2020/07/08/visual-impairment-employment-and-empowerment/article
Impact and management of vision impairment in the workplace
Tooth, Cirta. 2020. Sight support in schools: This article describes the impact of visual impairment on educational needs for young children and how this can be managed. Optometry Today 60 (6), pp. 74-78.
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/cpd/2020/05/22/sight-support-in-schools/article
Impact and management of vision impairment in schools
2019
Tooth, Cirta. 2019. Eyes on CVI 4: In the last of our series looking at cerebral visual impairment, Cirta Tooth (Optometrist Bsc, Prof Cert LV) uses example cases to show the impact of cerebral visual impairment upon visual fields and asks, what can be offered to patients with hemianopia or hemi-inattention due to acquired brain injury or childhood CVI. (C73830). Optician 259, pp. 18-23.
CVI Part 4: Cases of patients with visual field impairment
Tooth, Cirta. 2019. Eyes on CVI 3: In the third in our series looking at the commonest cause of severe sight impairment in children in England and Wales, Cirta Tooth uses example cases to show what can be offered to patients who show features of cerebral visual impairment in childhood (C72127). Optician 259, pp.19-22.
CVI Part 3: Cases of CVI in childhood
Tooth, Cirta. 2019. Eyes on CVI 2: Cirta Tooth (optometrist Bsc) continues her series helping clinicians to understand the visual world of patients with a discussion of history taking and investigative techniques (C71421). Optician 259 (Number 6701), pp. 25-29.
CVI Part 2: History taking and investigative techniques
Tooth, Cirta. 2019. Eyes on CVI: Cirta Tooth (Optometrist Bsc) introduces the concept of cerebral visual impairment and understanding our patients’ visual world (C70900). Optician 259 (Number 6694), pp. 22-24.
CVI Part 1: Introduction
Other Publications
2024
Kimberley Young. 2024. Facilitating positive communication: OT gathered top-tips for helping all patients feel comfortable in practice. Optometry Today
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/features/2024/02/17/facilitating-positive-communication
Cirta Tooth was one of the professionals interviewed for this feature about positive communication
2022
Harvey, Bill and Tooth, Cirta. 2022. Alzheimer’s interactive. Bill Harvey offers a summary of your discussions concerning how best to deal with a patient showing signs of cognitive impairment while author Cirta Tooth offers her views. Optician 266, pp.22-23.
Cirta Tooth was invited for this discussion about supporting patients with cognitive impairment
2021
McCormick Emily. 2021. Can you hear me? OT poses a monthly scenario from a practitioner. This month, we look at meeting the needs of patients with hearing loss with optometrist Cirta Tooth. Optometry Today September 2021.
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/features/2022/03/03/can-you-hear-me
Cirta Tooth was asked to comment about positive communication in the optical practice
2020
Tooth, Cirta. 2020. I cannot live without my hearing: Optometrist Cirta Tooth discusses how hearing is of upmost importance in practice when it comes to listening to patients. Optometry Today 60(2), p84.
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/features/2022/03/03/i-could-not-live-without-my-hearing
Cirta Tooth comments on the important of listening to our patients
2007
Tooth, Cirta. 2007. Vision Aid Overseas. Eye 13(6), pp.30-33.
Cirta Tooth participated in three projects with the charity Vision Action, previously known as Vision Aid Overseas:
2004: Ethiopia
2005: Burkina Faso
2006: Uganda
Her observations about eye health were published in a letter to the editor.
