Contact your Richmond, KY Eye Doctor to Find Out About Treatment Options
Many adults eventually begin to experience presbyopia or a diminished ability to see objects that are close, as they age. With the growing worldwide population of older adults, more and more people develop the condition, which is an unavoidable result of your aging eye.
The lenses of your eye curve to focus on objects at differing distances. Some theories are that with age, that flexibility is reduced since the lenses become thicker. This condition is known as presbyopia and is often noticed by blurred vision when focusing on things at close range. This often can start to take place any time after someone turns forty. Those with the condition usually deal with the situation by holding a book far away or standing back from the object they want to focus on. Shifting from focusing on far off objects to closer ones is often strenuous for people with presbyopia. This strain could add further discomfort resulting in headaches, eye strain or fatigue.
Most of the time bifocal lenses or progressive addition lenses (PALs) are worn to resolve presbyopia. Bifocal lenses have two prescriptions for vision, one is for viewing things from a distance and the lower portion of the lens is for seeing things that are close by. Progressive addition lenses use the same principal as bifocals, however they have a more gradual gradient between the separate prescriptions and have no visible distinction between them. Users will more easily shift visual focus, as they might with standard vision. An alternative would be reading glasses which are usually worn just when needed as opposed to all day.
Presbyopes can also opt for multifocal contact lenses or monovision lens correction (in which one eye is prescribed a distance vision and the other near vision) to correct the vision impairment. Different individuals react differently to multifocal lenses, so it may take a while to decide if and in what combination they work for you.
In addition, there are options for other procedures including surgery that could be considered that you may want to discuss with your optometrist. A lot of people find the most success by using a combination of options for presbyopia. Also, since presbyopia will likely worsen with age, it is likely that you will be required to keep adapting your prescription. The good news is, there is quite a bit of experimental treatment on the market currently to discover additional effective solutions for patients with presbyopia.
Noticing symptoms of presbyopia? Call for a check up with your Richmond, KY eye doctor. A return to normal eyesight is worth it!