Eyesight After 40 - The Truth About Your Eyes and Near Vision

Do you have trouble seeing up close? you may have hyperopia. But it could also be presbyopia. Truth be told, they are both similar, but have different causes. As such, they have different treatments as well.

Hyperopia, or farsightedness, occurs when the light rays that enter the eye do not focus directly on the retina, but in fact, they focus behind it. This is caused when the eyeball is shorter than it should be. People can be affected by hyperopia at any age. Children sometimes outgrow this condition because their eyes grow as they do. But if they do not, hyperopia can be treated with corrective lenses, either glasses or contact lenses. Laser surgery, such as LASIK, is also an option.

Presbyopia, on the other hand, also causes one to have difficulty reading close up, but it is age-related, and affects people over 40. It is caused by the hardening of the lens inside the eye. The result is the same as hyperopia: poor near vision. Generally, this is treated with corrective lenses. Reading glasses, worn only when viewing things close up, are the most common treatment. Another choice is contact lenses to produce monovision, when one lens corrects the distance vision, if needed, and the other lens corrects the near vision. Wearers then train themselves to use one eye for reading and the other eye for seeing things in the distance. Contact lenses can also be fit as progressive multifocals, similar to progressive channel eyeglasses.

Hyperopia is not inevitable, and it can be treated surgically. Presbyopia is inevitable, and until recently, was not generally treated with surgery. When eyes begin to lose flexibility and are no longer to see crisply and clearly close up, it is time for treatment. Though surgery for presbyopia has become available, the overwhelming majority of sufferers still choose the option of wearing reading glasses. They are safe, they do not require an invasive procedure, and they are stylish. If losing your clear close vision due to presbyopia is a foregone conclusion, you may as well be fashionable when doing so.

Steve Cogger is an eye care specialist in practice in New York. His website http://www.ReadinStyle.com specializes in designer reading glasses and other eyewear for presbyopic eyes.