Epithelial basment membrane disease leads to eye irritation, tearing, and some degree of light sensitivity.  Vision can be affected as well but usually only to a minor degree.  Most patients are asymptomatic unless small scratch-like defects occur on the front surface layer, called the epithelium.  Your eye doctor may see diagnostic changes in the first decade of life but symptoms often are not noticed until early adulthood.  The tissue damage is progressive with increasing irritation and loss of vision as patients get older and usually both eyes are similarly affected.  The corneas sometimes appear cloudy to some extent, especially in older individuals, resulting from deposits or damaged tissue.  This process results in opacities which are often small and discrete, appearing as dots or spots on the cornea, but these can spread and fuse creating more diffuse cloudiness.  The extent of cloudiness has an obvious impact on how much the vision is affected.