Presbyopia is the natural loss of near vision that happens as you get older and is why most older adults require reading glasses. Refractive errors, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, are caused by a misshapen cornea, but presbyopia is a different type of refractive issue caused by the hardening of your natural eye lens. Our eye doctors at Wiles Eye Center can restore your close-up vision with eyeglasses or refractive lens exchange to replace the stiff lens with an artificial intraocular lens implant (IOL).
How Does Presbyopia Develop?
Around your 40s, you may notice small print starts to look blurry, causing you to hold a piece of paper or screen farther from your face to see clearly. The crystalline natural eye lens works like the lens of a film camera, seamlessly adjusting to focus on objects at various distances, but as you age, it loses that flexibility and stiffens.
In your youth, the muscle fibers around your eye’s lens constrict and curve to change the focusing power for near vision, but these fibers become rigid, and the lens thickens with age. For some, focusing on nearby objects may be slow, like your vision is getting “stuck,” while others can’t focus at all. Many people first notice these changes in their 40s and 50s. You may have presbyopia if you experience these symptoms:
- You have difficulty reading tiny print
- You need to hold materials or objects at arm’s length to see
- You experience eye strain, headaches or visual fatigue
- You have blurry eyesight when transitioning visual distances
- It’s difficult for you to focus clearly in low lighting
Presbyopia affects nearly everyone, but there are many ways to treat this refractive error.
Presbyopia Treatment at Wiles Eye Center
Our eye doctors in Kansas City and St. Joseph offer several vision correction options for presbyopia. Bifocal, trifocal and no-line progressive lenses can be used to accommodate near vision loss for people who already wear prescription eyeglasses, and there are special contact lenses that can improve presbyopia, so you don’t have to rely on reading glasses. However, many people want complete freedom from corrective eyewear. Refractive lens exchange is an exciting option for many people with presbyopia as this age group typically doesn’t qualify for LASIK and is too young for cataract surgery.
Refractive lens exchange (RLE) works like cataract surgery, but the extracted lens is healthy and clear, not clouded by a cataract. The natural eye lens is replaced with an IOL customized to restore visual acuity, and with the right IOL, you can eliminate the need for glasses, contacts and readers. Wiles Eye Center offers a variety of IOL options, including Crystalens HD, ReSTOR Multifocal and Tecnis Multifocal, and our eye doctors will recommend the most suitable IOL for your vision needs and ocular health.
Modified LASIK is another option for people with presbyopia and other refractive errors. This technique corrects one eye for distant vision and the other for near, and they work together to provide good vision at all focal points. Corneal inlays are implanted rings in the cornea that help the eye focus, like a pinhole camera, and are a reversible treatment option for presbyopia.
Contact Wiles Eye Center About Presbyopia Treatment
If you’re experiencing near vision loss or other changes, contact our doctors in St. Joseph and Kansas City today to schedule your eye exam at Wiles Eye Center.
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