Presbyopia: What Causes It And How To Correct It

What is presbyopia?

A condition where eyes gradually lose the ability to clearly see up close, it is a natural cause of aging. Presbyopia may begin shortly after age 40. You will most likely realize that you are holding reading materials further away in order to see them clearly.

What causes presbyopia?

When you are young, your clear lens is more dynamic, it changes shape to focus light onto the retina so you can see. The lens is soft and flexible, allowing you to focus on objects both close-up and far away. After age 40, the lens becomes more rigid, making it harder to read or do other close-up tasks.There is no prevention or reversion to this condition, it is the normal aging process that causes presbyopia. However, eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery are all options to correct this issue. Without one of these solutions, you may be bothered by headaches and eye strain.With presbyopia, reading glasses are able to help refract (bend) light rays before they enter the eye to compensate for the loss of close up vision.

Ways to correct presbyopia

If presbyopia is your only vision problem reading glasses may be all you need. They will help correct close-up vision problems and can be bought without a prescription.If glasses are already a part of your routine for other vision problems, you might need bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses to correct presbyopia too.Contact lenses are often preferred over regular glasses. They’re different contact lenses that help presbyopia, the difference between both of them are described below:

• Monovision contacts: correct both eyes differently, aiding one eye for distance vision and helping the other with close vision.
• Multifocal contacts: are lenses with several rings modified at different powers. With these contacts, you can use both eyes for near-sighted vision and distance-vision at the same time.

Refractive surgery: the solution for some people in order to achieve monovision. This eliminates the need for glasses. Using laser, an ophthalmologist reshapes the cornea for clearer distance vision in one eye and close-up vision in the other.

Summary

Presbyopia is commonly known as “aging eye” and is caused when your eyes gradually lose the ability to see things clearly up close. There are several options to improve your vision, you can wear glasses, use contact lenses or have refractive surgery.Your ophthalmologist can tell you about vision correction options for your presbyopia.