Jul 01, 2018
When you hit your mid-to-late forties, you might begin to notice that you have trouble with reading. Seeing clearly things that are up close is an age related function of your vision which gets weaker as you become older. Why does this happen? With age, the lens of your eye becomes more rigid, making it more difficult to focus on handheld objects. That, in a nutshell, is presbyopia. And it's universal.
People with undiagnosed presbyopia may hold reading material at arm's length in order to focus properly. Additionally, engaging in other close-range activities, such as needlepoint or writing, may also result in eyestrain in people with presbyopia. When it comes to rectifying the symptoms of presbyopia, you have a few solutions, whether you wear eyeglasses and contact lenses.
An oft-used aid is reading glasses, but these are mostly efficient for those who wear contacts or for those who don't need glasses for correcting distance vision. Although reading glasses are easy to find at pharmacies or drugstores, you shouldn't buy them until you have been examined by your eye care professional. Lots of people don't know that reading glasses may be handy for brief periods of reading but they can eventually lead to fatigue with prolonged use. A better alternative to drugstore reading glasses are custom made ones. They are able to rectify astigmatism, accommodate prescriptions that vary between the two eyes, and in addition to all this, the optic centers of every lens can be made to suit the person who wears them. The reading distance can be adjusted to meet the individual's needs.
If you already have glasses for distance vision, consider bifocal or multi-focal corrective lenses, or the popular progressive addition lenses (PALs). Essentially, these are eyeglasses with multiple points of focus, and the lower part of the lens is where there is a prescription that helps you focus at close range. If you already wear contacts, it's best to talk to your optometrist to discuss multifocal contact lenses. Additionally, you may be able to benefit from a treatment technique called monovision. Monovision is when one eye wears a lens for distance vision and one eye wears a lens for close vision.
Because your eyesight continues to change with age, you can expect your prescription to increase periodically. But it's also important to examine your various choices before making choices about your vision; you can be susceptible to presbyopia, even if you've had refractive surgery in the past.
Have to chat with your optometrist for an unbiased perspective. We can help you deal with presbyopia and your changing eye sight in a way that's both beneficial and accessible.
