Presbyopia – Reading difficulty.
Presbyopia is a visual condition in which the crystalline lens of your eye loses it’s flexibility, which makes it difficult for you to focus on close objects. It may seem to occur suddenly, but the actual loss of flexibility takes place over a number of years. Presbyopia usually becomes noticeable in the early to mid forties and is a natural part of the ageing process of the eye. When people develop presbyopia, they find they need to hold books or newspapers at arms length in order to focus properly. When they perform close work they may develop headaches, eye-strain or feel tired.
Presbyopic Treatment: Eyewear.
Spectacles such as reading lenses or varifocals are the most common correction for presbyopia. Reading glasses will correct the near vision blur but will blur the distance vision when you look up. Varifocal glasses correct the close work but when you look up the distance vision is not disturbed and are therefore more versatile. If you wear contact lenses, then reading glasses can be worn while wearing your lenses to focus on close work. Another type of contact lens correction for presbyopia is mono-vision, in which one eye wears a distance prescription and the other wears a prescription for close work.
Presbyopic Treatment: Surgery.
Surgical options to treat presbyopia are also available. One example is conductive keratoplasty which uses radio waves to create more curvature to improve near vision in one eye only, for a type of mono-vision correction.
Lasik can also be used to correct presbyopia in which one eye is corrected for near vision, while a new procedure called presbylasik actually moulds the cornea to create vision at multiple distances. Many other surgical options are being researched such as increasing the flexibility of the eye’s hardened lens and the introduction of a replacement lens so that patients undergoing cataract surgery can achieve clear vision at all distances.