Eyesight is certainly one of the gifts that humankind should be grateful for. Having blurry eyesight or inability to clearly see images can cause great discomfort. Luckily, medicine practice nowadays has many treatment options to help retain a clear eyesight. Of course, these treatments are quite dependent on how severe the eye disorder or problems are. The question is, can presbyopia be cured?
First thing first, what is actually presbyopia? Presbyopia happens when the eye gradually loses the ability to see things clearly, particularly objects up close. It is part of the ageing process due to progressive decrease of the lens capacity to accommodate light by changing its shape due to its soft and flexible characteristics. Lens play a crucial part in helping the human to see an object clearly by focusing light onto the retina. The normal ageing process causes the lens to become rigid. A person will start to experience presbyopia around the age of 40. The easiest way to spot a presbyopia is when a person needs to hold what they are reading further away to help them read much more clearly. A person with presbyopia also has difficulty doing other close-up tasks such as thread a needle like how they used to.
Unfortunately, presbyopia cannot be cured because it is part of the normal ageing process in humans. Plus, there is no way to even reverse this process. The good news is, there are ways to help correct these eye conditions by providing better vision acuity. However, the correction may not be able to fully restore the normal eyesight focusing on nearby objects and patients have to accept any compromises in quality and flexibility of vision offered at different distances. There are also no drugs or medication that help with presbyopia.
Hence, what can a person with presbyopia do to help them see close-distance objects clearly? Here are some treatment helps to correct this vision problem:
1- Reading glasses. This can be suitable for those with no other vision problems such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness or astigmatism. It is considered as a single vision lens and can be easily obtained even without a prescription at a cheaper price.
2- Bifocal, trifocal or progressive addition spectacle lenses (PALs). These lenses help to correct presbyopia and the existing vision problems. These lenses incorporate zones of various optical powers for a person to view objects at a chosen particular distance. This can be a great advantage as a person only needs one pair of spectacles to use throughout their day.
3- Contact lenses. It is available in two types: monovision and multifocal contacts. Monovision lenses help to correct for distance vision and close-up vision. Multifocal lenses have several zones set at different optical power which helps with both near and far vision. The downside of contact lenses is a person is prone to have dry eyes due to age-related conditions.
4- Surgery. There are a number of surgeries available for presbyopia. Most common are refractive surgery such as LASIK where the laser is used to reshape the cornea and in return reduce the need of glasses. Corneal inlays involve implantation of an inlay in the cornea to help restore the close-up vision. IOL implantation after a lens extraction is becoming popular for correction of presbyopia.
Correcting a presbyopia is necessary as it helps to improve the quality of life. Uncorrected presbyopia led to a person easier to feel drowsy and headache due to difficulty of reading. It is best to consult your optometrist or ophthalmologist if you experience presbyopia to help decide the best treatment to correct this eyesight issue.
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