Presbyopia

Symptoms include clear vision at a distance, but blurred at close range (e.g., the arms are not long enough to read the newspaper). People with presbyopia can also suffer from headaches. When a myopic person (who can see well at close range) becomes presbyopic, they are forced to remove their glasses in order to read properly up close. The discomfort caused by having a restricted reading distance and constantly taking off and putting on glasses (to alternate between distance and close-up vision) makes progressive lenses the optimal solution.

The power of accommodation of the lens of the eye declines with age. A natural change in vision results in a progressive loss of elasticity in the ocular lens due to decreased contraction of the ciliary body (the lens muscle). Presbyopia mainly appears between 40 and 50 years old, and it affects everyone after the age of 50, before stabilising later in life, due to a lack of accommodation of the eye. If you do not experience any visual discomfort after the age of 50, this may be due to the following reasons:

• You do not read much, and you have very limited near vision needs.

• You are short-sighted and you are not aware that you do not see well at a distance, which is rare because short-sightedness is inconvenient in everyday life.

• You can see up close with one eye, and at a distance with the other. You alternate between them without realising. In this case, binocular and distance vision is usually impaired to a large extent.

100% of people over the age of 48 are affected by presbyopia.

Like Hyperopia, presbyopia can be corrected by wearing glasses with convex (convergent) lenses. However, the most appropriate solution nowadays is to use progressive lenses that correct distance, intermediate, and near vision.