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Treating Presbyopia
Visit your Rocky Mount, NC Optometrist to Find Out About Treatment Options
Many adults begin to experience presbyopia or an impaired ability to focus on things at a close range, as they age. As people worldwide are living longer a larger number of people develop presbyopia, which currently cannot be avoided.
Your eye's lenses bend to focus on objects at varying distances. Some theories are that with age, that flexibility diminishes because the natural lenses become thicker. This phenomenon is called presbyopia and is often noticed by blurred vision when focusing on things right in front of you. This often begins to take place any time after the age of forty. Those with presbyopia often deal with the situation by holding the paper away from their eyes or standing at a distance from the object they want to focus on. Transitions from focusing on far away objects to closer ones can often be tiring for those with presbyopia. The stress might worsen the situation by causing eye strain, fatigues or headaches.
The most popular solutions for dealing with presbyopia are bifocals or progressive addition lenses (PALs). Bifocal lenses have two prescriptions for vision, the upper portion is for viewing objects from a distance and the other part of the lens is for focusing on objects that are close by. PALs are similar to bifocals, however the transitions between the two prescriptions are more gradual and have no clear distinction between them. Users will more easily change focus, as they could with normal sight. An alternative would be reading glasses which, unlike bifocals or PALs which are worn all day, are used only as needed.
Presbyopes can also use multifocal contact lenses or monovision lens correction (in which one eye is prescribed a distance vision and the other near vision) to deal with the vision impairment. Different individuals adjust in different ways to multifocal lenses, so it may take a while to determine if and in what combination they work for you.
There are also options for other procedures including surgery that could be considered that you may want to discuss with your eye doctor. A significant number of people find the most success by using a combination of treatments for presbyopia. Also, since your vision will likely get worse with age, you will probably be required to continually adjust the strength of your prescription. The positive news is, there continues to be a significant amount of research being done to discover more effective solutions for the growing number of people dealing with presbyopia.
Seeing signs of presbyopia? Schedule a check up with your Rocky Mount, NC optometrist. Improved vision is only a call away!
