The cause of presbyopia is the normal loss of near focusing ability that occurs with age. As people age, the lens becomes harder and less elastic, making it more difficult for the eye to focus on close objects, or less able to focus when you view something close up, or having trouble seeing small print, including text messages on their phone.
Though presbyopia is a normal change in our eyes as we age, it often is a significant and emotional event because it's a sign of aging that's impossible to ignore and difficult to hide.
When you become presbyopic, the presbyopia symptoms and signs are you either have to hold your smartphone and other objects and reading material (books, magazines, menus, labels, etc.) farther from your eyes to see them more clearly. Unfortunately, when you move things farther from your eyes they get smaller in size, so this is only a temporary and partially successful solution to presbyopia.
Also, even if you can still see pretty well up close, presbyopia can cause headaches, eye strain and visual fatigue that makes reading and other near vision tasks less comfortable and more tiring.
Because the human lens continues to change as you grow older, your presbyopic prescription will need to be increased over time as well. You can expect your eye specialist to prescribe a stronger presbyopia correction for near work as you need it.
Although presbyopia cannot be reversed, it is easy to correct. The simplest way is to wear reading glasses. But if you do not want to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses for presbyopia, your eye specialist can recommend you a number of surgical options to treat presbyopia as well.
1) Eyeglasses. Reading glasses are often sufficient to address your presbyopia if you didn’t require corrective lenses to see prior to the onset of presbyopia. They also might work well if you wear contacts and have recently begun to experience the effects of presbyopia. If you already wear glasses to correct your nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism, you may choose to wear glasses with multifocal lenses. There are three types: progressives, bifocals and trifocals.
2) Contact Lenses. If you have used contact lenses in the past, you may prefer to stick with contacts to treat your presbyopia. In addition to multifocal contacts, the eye doctor may also recommend another option which is monovision with contacts. This involves wearing one contact geared toward distance vision and the other for near vision.
3) Eye surgery. Your eye specialist can perform procedures such as Lasik and cataract surgery to treat presbyopia as well. These procedures allow you to free yourself of contacts and lessen or eliminate your dependence on glasses.
One presbyopia correction in Singapore that's gaining popularity is implantation of a corneal inlay. Typically implanted in the cornea of the eye that's not your dominant eye, a corneal inlay increases depth of focus of the treated eye and reduces the need for reading glasses without significantly affecting the quality of your distance vision.
