Presbyopia or eyestrain is a refractive defect that usually appears after the age of 40.
There is a loss of elasticity of the ocular structures that causes the inability to focus at very close distances to the eyes such as the mobile phone or any document that is presented at a distance of about 40 cm.
It is a defect that is part of aging, as the years go by, the elasticity of the crystalline lens, which is the structure of the body in charge of focusing and defocusing to see well, is lost. When the crystalline lens becomes more rigid, it is more difficult to make the effort and blurred near vision is produced.
CAUSES
As mentioned above, the cause is the loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens, which is not able to contract to focus well on close objects.
As the years go by, this incapacity becomes greater and greater, and as time goes by, it becomes even more difficult to focus on close objects. This is a completely natural phenomenon associated with age.
SYMPTOMS
The symptoms associated with eyestrain are:
- Blurred near vision, especially when reading.
- Eye fatigue when focusing on near vision for a period of time.
- Moving near objects a little farther away to see them well.
Sometimes, these symptoms are more noticeable at the end of the day, as the hours go by when you are more tired. On the other hand, in the morning, early in the day, the symptoms are much less.
TREATMENT
Presbyopia can be solved in these ways:
near glasses: they can be glasses only for near vision to solve the blurred near vision and to be able to see well at this distance. This type of glasses, only carry the necessary graduation of near, that is to say when these glasses are used to see far, the vision will be blurred because it does not carry the graduation of distance.
progressive glasses: this type of glasses have the necessary graduation for near vision at the bottom part of the glass and the necessary graduation for far vision at the top part of the glass and the graduation for the intermediate distance such as the computer at 80 cm, so that to see far vision you only have to look straight ahead and to be able to read the mobile at 40 cm, you have to lower your gaze to the bottom part of the glass.
Bifocal glasses: they have the same characteristics as the progressive glasses but there is only the correction of the near and far distance. That is to say, the change of graduation between far and near is abrupt.
mutifocal or progressive contact lenses: they correct eyestrain although the quality of vision in general is much better with progressive glasses than with progressive contact lenses.
surgery: this is usually the last option as a treatment since it consists of removing the crystalline lens and inserting an intraocular lens to be able to see well at all distances.