Is That Label Blurry? It Could be Presbyopia!

There comes a day for most people on which they notice that the clarity of print is no longer sharp and readable. You may have experienced that day. If you have, you might remember it very well; the “whoa” factor when you tried to read or observe something up close, only to have to quickly move the object farther away from your face so you could see it clearly. Yes, that day.

According to statistics, that day is all but inevitable. It is a natural consequence of growing older, and it tells us that our eyes have begun to change. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about the onset of presbyopia, the age-related eye condition that is related to the loss of elasticity within the lens of each eye. When the lenses become more rigid, it becomes harder to focus up close.

At this point, more than 110 million American adults have been diagnosed with presbyopia. This number is expected to increase in the next few years alone. While we cannot cure it nor, at the moment, avoid it, there are ways to make sure that the natural stiffening of the eyes’ lenses does not cast a shadow over an active lifestyle.

Does Presbyopia Mean Glasses?

People who have presbyopia do, in fact, need corrective lenses to enable them to see well up close. Because technologies in optometry and ophthalmology have advanced so much over time, the correction of presbyopia no longer means a sentence of having to wear eyeglasses. Today, rather than rely on multifocal lenses with the telltale line somewhere near the center of the lens, patients are able to gain visual clarity with multifocal contact lenses. Contact lenses can be fabricated to include prescriptions for near vision and for distance vision. If correction is needed in only one of those areas, such as may be the case with presbyopia, this is easy to accommodate.

Today, we tend to be much more active than our parents and grandparents may have been. We don’t have time to worry about our eyeglasses sliding or falling off while we engage in our favorite activities and exercise. Multifocal contact lenses pave the way for active adults to see clearly despite presbyopia.

Get the 411 on your visual health. Call Pasadena Eye Associates at (713) 473-5715.