25 Jun How to treat presbyopia?
If you are finding you are having a harder time reading the morning news, and are over the age of forty, you might be suffering from presbyopia. Before you panic, this shouldn’t be alarming news! 100% of people will eventually suffer from this condition and it’s not the end of the world!
Read on to find out more about presbyopia and what you can do to restore your vision.
What is presbyopia?
The technical definition for presbyopia is the progressive decay related to the aging process of the lens of the eye. What this means in practical terms, is that the lens of your eye becomes less flexible and loses its elasticity, which makes it harder for your eye to focus, and harder to do every day things like reading, computer work and other tasks where you need close vision.
What are the symptoms?
Generally, the symptoms of presbyopia start from around the age of 40 and onwards, most people who suffer from presbyopia find that their eye start straining and getting more tired when doing everyday things like reading, writing, and using their computer, when they would normally have no issues with these tasks. As a result of the strain on your eyes, presbyopia can also cause headaches and visual fatigue.
How can it be treated?
Unfortunately, as presbyopia is an age-related degenerative condition, there is not a lot that can be done to avoid it, that is until someone comes up with a cure for ageing!
The simple solution for sufferers is of course correcting vision by the way of glasses of contacts. That being said, there are some surgical treatments available if you don’t want to wear glasses or contacts.
Monovision LASIK
This type of laser eye surgery can be used to correct presbyopia by creating ‘monovision’ for the patient. Basically, this gives the patient one eye for focusing on distant objects (normally the dominant eye) and one eye for focussing on anything up close. Monovision LASIK is effective because a mildly nearsighted eye sees near objects clearly without glasses, and after monovision LASIK, the dominant eye can provide clear distance vision and the non-dominant eye is responsible for sharpening near vision.
There is a compromise with this type of surgery as the two eyes working together means that the vision is always 100% crystal-clear as eye that are not affected by presbyopia, but it is a drastic improvement! If additional clarity is needed, specially designed glasses can always be worn to improve vision further.
Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE)
Refractive lens exchange is a type of surgery that involves the removal and replacement of the eye’s natural lens with an artificial intraocular lens to improve the patient’s vision. The procedure is very similar to cataract surgery, but in refractive lens exchange, the natural lens being removed is not affected by cataracts. This type of surgery can effectively remove the need for glasses or contacts for presbyopia sufferers and can provide closer and clearer vision.
Ultimately, what course of treatment you should take if you suffer from presbyopia depends totally on your personal preference, but if you’d like to find out what your options are, make an appointment with us today to see what treatments are available.
This article is not a substitute for a consultation with your surgeon. Before choosing to proceed with laser eye surgery your surgeon will have a detailed discussion with you about the right procedure and about the potential complications.
A unique mix of expertise, experience and international reputation, Dr Ron Binetter is the figure behind the Binetter Eye Centre. With more than two decades of hands-on experience in eye surgery, Dr Binetter is a specialist in cataract, lens implantation and laser eye surgery. Learn more about Dr Ron Binetter’s background and qualifications.