Dealing with Presbyopia

Ever wonder why even people who never had glasses have a hard time seeing things up close when they reach middle age? Because as you age, the lens of your eye becomes more and more inflexible, which makes it challenging to focus on close objects. We call this presbyopia. And it’s universal.
 

People with undiagnosed presbyopia tend to hold printed text at arm’s length to be able to focus properly. Additionally, engaging in other close-range activities, like crafts or writing, can also cause eyestrain and discomfort. For people who are ready to do something about presbyopia, there are a number of options, which take your eyewear preferences into account.

Reading glasses are only efficient for contact lens wearers or for people who don’t wear glasses for distance vision. These are readily available, but it is not recommended to buy a pair before you’ve had a full eye examination. Lots of people don’t know that reading glasses may help for quick periods of reading but they can cause fatigue when worn for long stretches of time.
 

And if you already wear glasses, but would rather not have to keep track of more than one pair of glasses, consider bifocal or multi-focal corrective lenses, or PALs (progressive addition lenses), which are quite popular. Essentially, these are glasses with multiple points of focus; the lower portion helps you see text and tasks at close distances. If you already wear contacts, it’s worthwhile to talk to your optometrist to find out about multifocal contact lenses. Additionally, you should consider a treatment approach which is called monovision. Monovision is when you wear one contact lens to correct near sightedness in one eye and another to correct far sightedness in the other eye.
 

Since your sight continues to change as time goes on, you should expect your prescription to increase periodically. However, it’s also necessary to understand your various choices before making choices about your vision; presbyopia can affect you, even if you’ve had refractive surgery in the past.
 

Ask your optometrist for an unbiased perspective. Vision goes through changes as you reach middle age and we want to help you deal with that in the way that’s most helpful and beneficial to you.