Answers to Your Questions About Presbyopia

Presbyopia is a vision condition in which the crystalline lens of your eye loses its flexibility. This results in progressive difficulty in focusing on close objects.

Your eye stops growing in your early teens. The lens, however, continues to grow and produce more and more cells. This continued growth eventually causes the lens to harden and lost some of its elasticity and therefore some focusing ability.

Some signs/symptoms of presbyopia include the tendency to hold reading material at arm’s length, blurred vision at normal reading distance and eye fatigue along with headaches when attempting to do close work. Unfortunately, Presbyopia cannot be prevented. It is a natural part of the aging process.

To compensate for presbyopia, doctors of optometry prescribe reading glasses, bifocals, trifocals, progressive addition lenses or contact lenses. Since presbyopia can complicate other common vision conditions like nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, your optometrist will perform other tests to determine the specific lenses that will allow you to see clearly and comfortable for your daily visual needs.