Symptoms of Presbyopia

Symptoms of Presbyopia may develop gradually. You may first notice the symptoms after the age of 40.

Presbyopia is a condition that causes gradual loss of the ability of your eye to focus on nearby objects. This condition is usually noticeable in your early to mid-40s and continues to get worse until around the age of 65.

What Causes Presbyopia?

Light reflected from objects is focused by the cornea and the lens to form an image in your eye. The closer the object is, the more the lens bends.

• The lens is a clear structure about the size and shape of an M&M’s candy.
• The cornea is the clear, dome-shaped front surface of your eye.
• Both of these structures bend light entering your eye to focus the image on the retina which is located on the inside back wall of your eye.

The lens is somewhat flexible, unlike the cornea, and can change shape as a result of a circular muscle surrounding it. The circular muscle relaxes when you view something from a distance. The muscle constricts as you look at something nearby, allowing the relatively elastic lens to curve and change its focus.

With age, your lens hardens, causing presbyopia. Your lens can no longer change shape to focus on close-ups as it becomes less flexible. As a result, these images appear out of focus.

What Are The Symptoms Of Presbyopia?

You may notice these symptoms are worse if you are tired or are in an area with dim lighting.

• Blurred vision at normal reading distance
• A tendency to hold reading material farther away to make the letters clearer
• Eyestrain or headaches after reading or doing close-up work

Seek medical care right away if these occur:

• See flashes of light, black spots, or halos around lights
• Have double vision
• Have a sudden loss of vision in one eye with or without eye pain
• Experience sudden hazy or blurred vision

How To Diagnose Presbyopia?

To diagnose Presbyopia, you need to have a basic eye exam. Your doctor may use various instruments and ask you to look through several lenses to test your distance and close-up vision. During your eye health exam, your eye doctor may put drops in your eyes to dilate your pupils. Several hours after the exam, you may experience increased sensitivity to light. Dilation enables your doctor to more easily view the inside of your eyes.

Treatment for Presbyopia

Treatment for Presbyopia includes wearing corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses, undergoing refractive surgery, or getting lens implants for presbyopia. However, if you are a good candidate for presbyopia surgery the first step to see is to have a comprehensive eye exam and a consultation with a refractive surgeon who specializes in the surgical correction of presbyopia.

Vuity (Pilocarpine Hydrochloride) is an approved eye drop used to treat presbyopia. It is a cholinergic muscarinic receptor agonist that works to improve near and intermediate visual acuity by contracting the iris sphincter muscle to constrict the pupil.