Since the 1980s, the large Baby Boom generation has been entering mid-life and encountering presbyopia. Presbyopia happens to everyone after the age of about 40, and most people notice it first when they start holding the menu or magazine further away to see the print clearly.
Reading glasses are usually the remedy of first resort, perhaps generic glasses from the drugstore, or perhaps custom glasses from your eye doctor. Since most people have at least a small amount of astigmatism, custom glasses give better vision, as they are designed to correct your astigmatism as well as your new farsightedness.
Regular LASIK Not Helpful For Presbyopia If you are young and nearsighted, farsighted or astigmatic, LASIK can correct your vision by reshaping the cornea – the clear front part of your eyes. The cornea acts as a lens in bending light as it enters the eye. Your LASIK treatment is customized to change the way the corneas bend light, so that they will work properly with the lens in each eye and the two together will give you clear vision.
But since presbyopia is progressive, you need progressively stronger reading glasses as the years go by. Therefore a regular LASIK surgery would not help because those results would be undone by time. However, there is another option.
LASIK Monovision Can Help Monovision is correction of one eye for near vision and the other for far vision. This may sound strange, but the brain can learn to interpret vision data differently from each eye. Usually your eye doctor would give you a test run with monovision contact lenses to see how you adapt to it.
If it works well for you, a LASIK surgery can modify each cornea differently so that your dominant eye will see clearly in the distance and your other eye will see clearly up close.
You can discuss your presbyopia treatment options with your eye doctor to see which one would be most appropriate for you. Perhaps an intraocular lens (IOL) would be a better choice than LASIK monovision. IOLs are used to treat cataracts but can also be used for presbyopia.
To learn more about LASIK and presbyopia, please call us or send an email today and we will be happy to schedule a personal consultation for you with one of our eye doctors.
