One of the many unavoidable consequences of aging is the deterioration of eyesight. A common reason for this is presbyopia. Around the age of 40 is symptoms such as blurred vision will start to arise during up-close activities such as knitting or reading.
The startling truth is that presbyopia more often than not will affect you whether you have had 20/20 vision or wore glasses your entire life. This is very common in the United States and with the aging of the overall population, there are more and more people every year with presbyopia. Needing to hold reading materials at an arm’s length away is a common problem that people with presbyopia have.
Presbyopia is primarily caused by age. More specifically, it is thought to come from the thickening of the lens of your eyeball in addition to the loss of pliability of the lens. The loss of elasticity and muscle ability decreases the eye’s ability to adjust to objects closer to the face.
One way to treat presbyopia is with eyeglasses. Bifocal lenses or progressive lenses tend to be the most popular options. Both of which have a distance prescription portion on top with a near prescription portion on the bottom. The difference is that bifocals have a defined line between the two sections while progressive lenses provide a gradual shift between the two. A third option are reading glasses which are all for close-up activities.
Contact lenses are another way to combat presbyopia. The types of lenses that would provide the most help are the multifocal lenses and the monovision lenses. Monovision lenses have a prescription for near objects in one eye and one for objects further away in the other eye. Just as the human eye will change with age, these prescriptions will also need to be adjusted as age and your vision changes even more.
Surgery is a third option to help fight against presbyopia. LASIK eye surgery, which is popular to help correct vision, and is one of the procedures that could be useful in this situation. With LASIK, monovision can be created. Just like with the contacts. This will create one eye primed for near-sighted occasions and the other would work better for objects in the distance. Your brain will be able to adjust and use each eye for its intended purpose.
Before choosing a solution, consult with a professional about which treatment would be best for you.