If you can’t read a menu or the latest page-turner without blurred vision, you may have a very common condition called presbyopia.

Ophthalmologists at Piedmont say the most common complaint among patients is eye fatigue at the end of the day after reading or working on a computer.

How the eye changes with age

The eye’s lens changes in power as it loses its shape and becomes stiffer with age.

At this point, it is common for people to become symptomatic and experience vision changes.

The easiest way to deal with presbyopia

Presbyopia is fairly easy to treat. But first, the bad news: Trying to prevent it isn’t going to happen.

The simplest solution is getting reading glasses. Both prescription and over-the-counter readers can be effective because they give power back to the eye.

He recommends starting with the lowest strength possible. The downside of using readers is that the eyes learn to rely on the corrective lens, which may cause them to weaken over time.  

It’s not uncommon to find a lower-strength reader works early on, but then you’re back at the store buying something stronger and stronger.

Contact for vision correction

Many people use contact lenses to improve up-close vision. Both bifocal and multifocal (monovision) lenses are available. Most people wear one lens to improve their reading vision, while the other eye is used for distance vision. 

Surgical options for presbyopia

There are surgical options to correct vision, including:

• Intraocular lenses
• Conductive keratoplasty
• PresbyLASIK
• Corneal inlays

Eye drops for vision correction?

Less invasive treatment may be on the horizon in the next year or so. Researchers are testing an eye drop that would correct presbyopia for up to eight hours at a time, which could revolutionize the ease with which we treat this problem.

The bottom line: Presbyopia is going to happen to all of us. It’s a normal aging change for the eye, and it’s not detrimental to a healthy eye, but it’s a huge nuisance. There are lots of good solutions out there and better ones coming into the market, hopefully within a year or so.

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