Do you experience blurry vision when reading or viewing your smartphone?
Do you experience headaches, eye fatigue or eye strain when reading?
Did you start experiencing this when you were around the age of 40, and above?
Well, if this is the case, you may find yourself moving reading materials farther away in order to see them clearly. Chances are that you are experiencing presbyopia. This is different from hyperopia, a refractive error that presents with similar symptoms.
Presbyopia is a condition in which the nearest point you can see an object clearly starts to recede with age. This loss of near focusing ability with age is normal, as it is caused by a loss of flexibility or gradual thickening of the natural lens inside the eyes. It happens to everyone from around the age of 40 upwards and there is no way to reverse this normal aging process.
Presbyopia can be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Contact lens options for presbyopia correction include monovision (where one eye wears the prescription for distance and the other the prescription for near vision) or the use of multifocal contact lenses.
Eyeglass options include the use of reading glasses (readers), bifocals, trifocals or progressive lenses.
Finally, note that as one grows older and the lens in the eye continues to lose its flexibility, the prescription would increase over time. Be sure to visit your eye doctor when you notice the symptoms reoccur even while using your glasses.
