Presbyopia Treatment in Brentwood, TN
Do You Find It Hard to Read Small Print? Although you may find it disturbing that you can’t read fine print when it’s close to your eyes, have no fear – this vision condition is common after age 40. Called presbyopia, which means “old eye” in Greek, it is a normal part of aging. You will likely feel a need to hold reading material farther away from your eyes in order to see it.
Causes of Presbyopia
In a healthy eye, a transparent lens rests behind your colored iris. In order to focus light onto your retina and enable you to see, this lens changes shape. When you are young, the lens is flexible and changes its form easily. This allows you to shift your focus smoothly between close and distant objects. However, as you age, the lens becomes harder and cannot change shape as efficiently. As a result, it becomes difficult to read small letters, perform detailed tasks (such as sewing) or do other tasks that depend upon acute near vision.
To some extent, presbyopia affects everyone as they get older. The onset of this vision condition isn’t associated with any other vision impairment; it makes no difference if you already wear eyeglasses or contact lenses.
How is Presbyopia Diagnosed?
Most of the time, patients visit our Brentwood eye care clinic with complaints that they can’t read the newspaper or any small print, such as on menus and ingredient lists. If they are over 40, it is a strong indication of presbyopia.
If you experience these classic symptoms of presbyopia, it’s time to visit our optometrist for a comprehensive eye exam and expert presbyopia treatment:
- Trouble focusing on small print
- Blurry near vision
- Eye Strain, headaches or eye fatigue or headaches when reading or doing close work
- A need to hold reading material at arm’s length in order to see it clearly
- Dry eyes or red eyes
- Needing brighter lighting for close vision
Eye Care & Treatment Brentwood, TN
Many of our patients ask if there is a way to prevent or reverse presbyopia. While there is no cure for this typical vision condition, we can offer various methods of presbyopia treatment in our Brentwood office.
Eyeglasses
Eyeglasses for reading, nicknamed “readers”, are simply magnifying glasses that you wear to see small print or to focus on work done close-up.
Bifocal or multifocal eyeglasses have progressive addition lenses (PALs). This eyewear is most appropriate for people who already require vision correction for refractive error, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism.
Bifocals have two built-in lens prescriptions, generally with the upper area for distance vision and the bottom area for near vision. PALs also provide vision for distance and near, yet the lenses have a gradual transition of powers – instead of two distinct zones. Many of our Brentwood patients prefer progressive lenses because they are more attractive, with no bisecting line across the lens.
Bifocal/Multifocal Contact Lenses
If you prefer wearing contact lenses, then this is a great solution for presbyopia eye care. Bifocal and multifocal contacts are available in both soft and hard versions. They provide you with more freedom and convenience than glasses, and allow a full range of sharp vision. You can look up, down and to the sides, instead of viewing upwards or looking over your glasses to see far.
Monovision is an alternative contact lens option for presbyopia treatment. This system divides your vision for close and far, using your stronger eye for looking into the distance and your weaker eye for seeing near. Our Brentwood eye doctor will evaluate your vision condition to determine the best type of contact lens for each eye.
Surgery
Surgical procedures for presbyopia treatment include conductive keratoplasty (CK), LASIK eye surgery, corneal inlays or a refractive lens exchange (RLE), in which a new intraocular lens is implanted to replace the old hardened lens.
Presbyopia eye care and treatment is currently a hot issue for research and development, namely because it affects so many people. If you want sharp, comfortable vision with presbyopia, visit our Brentwood, TN, office!