Presbyopia

Presbyopia is a physiological insufficiency of optical accommodation associated with the aging of the eye; it results in progressively worsening ability to focus clearly on close objects. Also known as age-related farsightedness (or as age-related long sight in the UK), it affects many adults over the age of 40. A common sign of presbyopia is difficulty in reading small print, which results in having to hold reading material farther away. Other symptoms associated can be headaches and eyestrain. Different people experience different degrees of problems. Other types of refractive errors may exist at the same time as presbyopia. While exhibiting similar symptoms of blur in the vision for close objects, this condition has nothing to do with hypermetropia or far-sightedness, which is almost invariably present in newborns and usually decreases as the newborn gets older. Presbyopia is a typical part of the aging process. It occurs due to age-related changes in the lens (decreased elasticity and increased hardness) and ciliary muscle (decreased strength and ability to move the lens), causing the eye to focus light right behind rather than on the retina when looking at close objects. It is a type of refractive error, along with nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Diagnosis is by an eye examination. Presbyopia can be corrected using glasses, contact lenses, multifocal intraocular lenses, or LASIK (PresbyLASIK) surgery. The most common treatment is glass correction using appropriate convex lens. Glasses prescribed to correct presbyopia may be simple reading glasses, bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses. Pilocarpine eye drops are a recently FDA-approved treatment for presbyopia. People over 40 are at risk for developing presbyopia and all people become affected to some degree. An estimated 25% of people (1.8 billion globally) had presbyopia as of 2015.