PRESBYOPİA (STRUGGLING WITH THE FINE PRINT)
- What Causes Presbyopia?
- How Are The Symtoms Of Presbyopia?
- How Is Presbyopia Treated?
WHAT CAUSES PRESBYOPIA?
Presbyopia is a vision condition caused by the aging of the eye. It affects nearly everyone by the age of 50. The Crystalline lens of the eye thickens throughout life, making it harder and less flexible over time. The progressive loss of elasticity of the lens results in the eye becoming less capable of focusing on close objects. Most often, this inability to make out fine details up close is due to the weakening of the muscles responsible for focusing the lens, and/or the lens' increasing inability to alter its shape. Because these two factors are age related, farsightedness occurs most often in middle aged and elderly adults. Because the lens is less able to assume the convex shape necessary to focus the image on the retina, the result is blurred vision. Tasks like reading small print and computer work become more difficult. Distance vision, however, is usually unaffected.
Presbyopia might seem to occur suddenly, but the actual loss of flexibility transpires over a number of years. It typically becomes noticeable in the early to mid-forties, as it is a natural part of the aging process of the eye. It is not a disease and is not preventable but once diagnosed, treatment can relieve eyestrain and improve near vision clarity. The visual effects caused by presbyopia can slowly worsen for several years, but will stabilize between the ages of 65 and 70.
WHAT ARE THE SYMTOMS OF PRESBYOPIA?
When people develop presbyopia, they have the tendency to hold reading material at arm’s length to focus properly. Other symptoms include:
- Headaches or eye strain when performing near work
- Blurred vision at normal reading distances
- Needing brighter lights to see clearly
HOW IS PRESBYOPIA TREATED?
Glasses with bifocal, trifocal or progressive addition lenses (PALs) are the most common method of correction for presbyopia. Advances in progressive lens materials have allowed companies to produce thin, lightweight lenses, without the distinctive line separating the visual fields. These provide wearers with a gradual change in prescription strength between distance and near vision. They have a clear ‘corridor’ where objects at an intermediate distance are in focus, thereby avoiding a sharp image transition when the eyes move from one distance zone to another.
Reading glasses are another option. These are ideal for people who only have difficulty seeing printed matter. Reading glasses are solely for close work. Some people choose to wear them over top of contact lenses that are prescribed for distance vision. They are available in a wide range of lightweight, attractive designs. Inexpensive reading glasses are readily available over-the-counter at retail stores, but prescription reading glasses from your eyecare provider will ensure balanced vision between the two eyes, exact fitting, reduced distortion and precise optics.
Multifocal contact lens technology has advanced considerably, providing wearers with new levels of choice and comfort. These are available in either soft or rigid gas permeable materials. They offer the convenience of contact lenses with the ability to have clear distance, intermediate and near vision. The popularity of these contact lens designs has resulted in numerous offerings from most major contact lens companies.
Another option for contact lens wearers who are just starting to have the early symptoms of presbyopia is called Monovision. This fitting technique results in one eye wearing a contact lens for distance vision and the other eye for near vision. After a period of adjustment to the different images received from each eye, the brain starts to favour one eye or the other, depending on the task. Most people see reasonably well, but there are limitations to this approach, namely lack of depth perception.
Laser surgery to reverse presbyopia is currently being used in Canada and Mexico. However, it is still being investigated in the U.S., and has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat presbyopia.
The FDA recently approved a surgical procedure called conductive keratoplasty to treat presbyopia. Instead of lasers, conductive keratoplasty uses radio waves. The physician uses a small instrument to apply the radio waves to the eye (usually just one eye) to reshape the cornea and improve the patient's vision of nearby objects.
