Have you noticed you’re holding your phone, books, or newspapers at arm’s length to properly focus on words? Are you having trouble with up-close tasks, like threading a needle or putting on makeup? If you’re in your 40s, you may be experiencing When presbyopia, or the loss of near-focusing ability.
While it can be concerning, presbyopia is not a disease. It’s part of the natural aging process and as normal as wrinkles. Fortunately, it’s often easy to correct.
Understanding Presbyopia
Presbyopia is a type of refractive error in which the eyes slowly lose their ability to see things clearly up close. It occurs when the lens inside the eye loses its elasticity due to natural aging.
When you look at something, light passes through your cornea (the transparent front layer of the eye). Then it passes through the pupil. The iris (colored part of the eye) opens and closes your pupil to control how much light the pupil lets in.
After passing through the pupil, light passes through the lens (a clear, curved structure behind the pupil). The lens is flexible and relatively elastic. It changes its shape and length with the help of tiny muscles to bend the rays and focus them on the retina. This process is called accommodation and allows the lens to focus on both close and distant images.
With age, your lens loses its flexibility and becomes rigid, making it unable to change shape and bend light as easily. As a result, it becomes difficult to focus on objects up close.
Symptoms of Presbyopia
The symptoms of presbyopia involve a progressive deterioration in your ability to read or do other close-up tasks. Common symptoms of presbyopia include:
- Having difficulty reading small print
- Headaches or eyestrain after reading or doing work up close
- Requiring more light to read or do close work
- Blurred vision at normal reading distance
- Needing to hold reading material at arm’s length to see text more clearly
- Fatigue from doing close work
- Squinting to see things close up
Presbyopia has symptoms similar to those of hyperopia (farsightedness). However, they’re two different conditions with different causes. Hyperopia occurs when an eyeball is shorter than normal or a cornea is too flat. Hyperopia is typically present at birth.
Risk Factors for Presbyopia
For most people, presbyopia becomes apparent shortly after age 40. Presbyopia before the age of 40 is called premature presbyopia and may be a sign of an underlying medical condition.
A person is at higher risk of premature presbyopia if they have:
- Diabetes
- Anemia
- Cardiovascular disease
- Farsightedness
- Eye disease or trauma
- Multiple sclerosis
- Myasthenia gravis
- Poor blood flow or vascular insufficiency
Some prescription and OTC drugs can affect your eye’s ability to focus on close objects. Other factors that put you at risk of early onset of presbyopia include being female, eating an unhealthy diet, having intraocular surgery, or having decompression sickness.
Diagnosing Presbyopia
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms of presbyopia, contact your ophthalmologist for a comprehensive eye exam. Even if you don’t have any of the aforementioned symptoms, you should schedule regular eye exams as you grow older.
During each exam, your ophthalmologist will dilate your pupils with special eye drops to make it easier to examine the inside of your eyes. They will test your visual acuity and assess how your eyes refract light.
Treatment Options for Presbyopia
There is no cure for presbyopia. However, there are various treatment options that will help improve your vision and allow you to see close-up text and objects more clearly. These include:
- Eyeglasses: reading glasses, bifocals, trifocals, office progressives, progressive multifocal
- Contact lenses: monovision, modified monovision, bifocal/multifocal
- Surgery: LASIK surgery, intraocular lens implant, refractive surgery, corneal inlays, conductive keratoplasty, photorefractive keratectomy (PRK)
- Eye drops: miotic drops, lens-softening drops
Contact Your Eye Care Experts Today
Presbyopia is a natural part of the aging process. Fortunately, there are many treatment options that will allow you to continue seeing clearly so you can enjoy your favorite activities. If you're concerned about your vision, contact Atlantic Eye Consultants today for a comprehensive eye exam. We’re committed to preserving your eyesight for a better quality of life.