Visit your Brooklyn, NY Eye Doctor to Learn More About Treatment Options
Presbyopia is a visual impairment related to aging in which objects at a close range, such as newspapers, books or sewing, become blurred. As people around the world are living longer, a significant number of people develop the condition, which is an unavoidable result of your aging eye.
The lenses of your eye bend to focus on objects at differing distances. Some theorize that with age, that elasticity diminishes since the natural lenses thicken. This condition is called presbyopia and is often noticed by blurred vision when reading or seeing things at a close distance. This usually can start to take place around someone turns forty. Sufferers usually manage with near visual impairment by holding the paper away from their eyes or standing away from the object they are looking at. Transitions from focusing on far off objects to closer ones is often straining for people with presbyopia. The stress could worsen the situation resulting in headaches, eye strain or fatigue.
The most popular solutions for dealing with presbyopia are bifocal lenses or progressive addition lenses (PALs). A bifocal lens is separated into two prescriptions for vision, one is for distance vision and the other part of the lens is for focusing on objects that are close by. PALs use the same principal as bifocals, but they provide a more gradual gradient between the two prescriptions and have no clear distinction between them. Wearers can more easily adjust their focus, as they might with normal sight. An alternative would be reading glasses which are usually worn just when needed as opposed to all day.
Presbyopes can also consider multifocal contacts or monovision lens correction (in which one eye is prescribed a correction for distance vision and the other near vision) to correct their condition. Multifocals don't work for everyone and can sometimes cause discomfort or vision difficulties, so it may take some time to figure out if and in what combination they work for you.
Additionally, there are options for other procedures including surgery that could be considered that you may want to discuss with your optometrist. A lot of patients are most successful combining options for presbyopia. Also, because your vision will likely deteriorate as you age, you will probably need to continually adjust your prescription. The positive news is, there continues to be a significant amount of research being done to discover other effective solutions for patients with presbyopia.
Noticing signs of presbyopia? Call for a visit with your Brooklyn, NY optometrist. Improved eyesight is worth it!
Like us on Facebook
Follow our Tweets
