What is Presbyopia?

Presbyopia is something that usually occurs around age 40, even if you’ve never had a vision problem before. You may start to experience blurry vision when reading or looking at your smartphone. Then, focusing between distances can become more difficult. 

What Causes Presbyopia?

In young people, the eye’s lens is soft and flexible, readily changing shape to see images from different distances. As you age, the crystalline lens in your eye hardens and loses elasticity. With this loss of flexibility, your eyes are less able to adjust properly to focus near objects.

Symptoms of Presbyopia

People commonly mistake the symptoms of presbyopia for farsightedness. However, the two conditions have different causes: farsightedness is a result of a refractive error that occurs when the shape of the eye focuses light beyond the retina instead of on it, whereas presbyopia is due to the loss of flexibility in the lens.

The tell tale symptoms of presbyopia is blurred vision while reading, sewing, using a mobile phone, or doing anything that requires near vision, or finding you have to hold objects further away to see them clearly. You may also experience headaches, eye strain, or a tired feeling when doing things that require near vision.

Treatments for Presbyopia

There are many options for people with presbyopia, including contact lenses. 

Common options for presbyopia include:

• Reading spectacles
• Bifocal or varifocal spectacles
• Contact lenses
• Refractive eye surgery

Everyone experiences presbyopia. Refusing to wear reading spectacles as a matter of pride will put undue strain on the eyes.