Presbyopia

What is presbyopia?

Presbyopia is when your eyes gradually lose the ability to see things clearly up close. It is a normal part of aging. You may start to notice presbyopia shortly after age 40. You will probably find that you hold reading materials farther away in order to see them clearly. If you do not correct presbyopia, you may be bothered by headaches and eye strain

What causes presbyopia?

Your clear lens sits inside the eye behind your colored iris. It changes shape to focus light onto the retina so you can see. When you are young, the lens is soft and flexible, easily changing shape. This lets you focus on objects both close-up and far away. After age 40, the lens becomes more rigid. It cannot change shape as easily. This makes it harder to read, thread a needle, or do other close-up tasks.

Treatment Options for Presbyopia

Vuity Drops

Vuity is a new eye drop medication used to treat presbyopia. It contains a special version of pilocarpine, which is a medication categorized as anticholinergic. This is prescribed by your doctor and is not available over the counter (OTC). We require dilated eye exams for all patients before prescribing Vuity drops.

Vuity works by making your pupils temporarily smaller so they can better focus on objects that are close to you.   

After Vuity is administered into the eyes, it usually begins to work within 15 minutes. It can continue working for up to 6 hours. Vuity may take about a month for the medication to work at its best. 

Glasses

Bifocals correct for close-up and far vision. A line, which may or may not be visible, divides the lens. The bottom of the lens refracts light for close up vision. The top portion refracts light to allow you to see distant objects.

Trifocals have three lens areas to correct for close-up, mid-range and far vision.

Progressive Lenses correct vision like bifocals and trifocals. But instead of a line that divides each refractive area, refraction changes gradually in the lens from top to bottom.

Contacts

Monovision contacts. These correct one eye for distance vision and the other for close-up vision. You need to adapt to monovison contacts and train your brain to see this way. You may find you lose your ability to judge something’s distance or speed with monovision lenses.

Multifocal contacts. These lenses have several rings or zones set at different powers. With this design, you are actually using both near and far vision at the same time. However, your brain learns to automatically select the right focus for what you want to see. You may find that using a multifocal contact makes your vision less sharp than when using a monofocal lens.

Refractive Surgery

Refractive surgery. Some people decide to have surgery to achieve monovision. This can reduce their need for glasses for near and far objects. Using a laser, an ophthalmologist reshapes the cornea. for clear far vision in one eye and close-up vision in the other. In many ways, this is like wearing monovision contact lenses. Before the procedure, we will trail monovision contacts to see if this is a comfortable option for you.

Monovision Refractive Surgery