Presbyopia

What is Presbyopia?

Presbyopia, also known as “lao hua yan”, is the inability to focus on near objects. As a result of presbyopia, one may need to start wearing reading glasses for near work (reading, writing, phone usage).

There are two main factors that are responsible for presbyopia – (1) the lens gets harder and can’t change its shape as easily (2) the internal eye muscles also lose their function and can’t control the elasticity of the lens well.

By and large, presbyopia is caused by aging. Most people start to develop presbyopia around the age of 40. Consequently, the ability to focus continues to decrease as the person ages.

Is There Any Way to Prevent Presbyopia?

There is currently no known way of preventing presbyopia. However, there are various treatment options for presbyopia.

Presbyopia Treatments

Optical Devices are the most common way of treating presbyopia.

Bifocals or reading glasses
Multifocal contact lenses
Using a pair of reading glasses on top of contact lenses

However, optical devices only offer temporary correction.

Nowadays, there are many procedures that are able to offer long-term presbyopia.

Most of the procedures only take 15-30 minutes and provide long-term vision correction. Thereafter, patients can enjoy 24/7 visual without the hassles of glasses and contacts. To overcome presbyopia, a method called ‘monovision correction’ is used.