Presbyopia happens as the eye gradually loses its ability to focus on nearby objects. This disease is part of aging process and often causes several trouble. Presbyopia usually becomes evident between the beginning and the middle of the age 40 and continues to deteriorate until age 65. This article will show more 12 facts about presbyopia, which will support for your better treatment in the end.
1. Presbyopia is very different from Hyperopia
Presbyopia and Hyperopia (Farsightedness/Long-sightedness) are the same at the point of view, but presbyopia is not like farsightedness because presbyopia is a symptom caused by the natural aging process of the body, while hyperopia is a refractive error and people can suffer from a young age. But these are two different types. They differ at the following points:
| Presbyopia | Hyperopia |
| + It is not a refractive error but a physiological change in the eyes of the elderly. | + Differences in light refraction due to the imbalance in ratio between the length of the eyeball and the lens. |
| + Usually happens in middle-aged people, at age 40 and above. | + Mainly founded in children, who can be acquired from birth. |
| + Regulatory mechanism of the eye: No need regulate the eyes when looking at the long distance, just regulate at the short distance. | + Always need to regulate the eyes at any distances. |
2. We should identify the symptoms of presbyopia and hyperopia
People with hyperopia will often experience some symptoms includes:
- Feeling eye strain
- Feeling the near look unknown while looking far away clearly
- Feeling heavy in the forehead, pain in the temple, want to see clearly, you have to frown, etc.
- Can't work too long. Must stop working for a while to continue.
Presbyopia will happen when your age becomes high and you have symptoms like:
- Difficulty in reading small print, especially in light low conditions
- Eye fatigue when reading for a long time
- The distance of the view is nearly blurred or blurred for a moment.
- Presbyopia patients will feel their hands become "too short" to keep reading material at a comfortable distance.
People with hyperopia when switching to presbyopia, symptoms of hyperopia can be filled. However, based on your age and the above symptoms, you can also see your doctor to make sure you have presbyopia.
3. Presbyopia has some stages of development
Early Loss: This stage is easy to recognize in people aged 42 to 46, and adds 0.75 to 1. 25D. People with this level of presbyopia will find it difficult to see things in areas with low light.
Transition and Adaptation: Usually occurs in patients aged 47 to 52 years with Adds 1. 75 to 2. 00D. At this level, patients need to depend on presbyopia glasses to see things better and wear glasses regularly.
Total Loss of Accommodation: Adds from 2. 25D and above often occurs in people aged 53 and older, at this time vision is less serious, and using glasses is not really useful for them.
4. There are more than one type of presbyopia
- Incipient presbyopia: The beginning of presbyopia.
- Functional presbyopia: When it disturbs the visual function.
- Absolute presbyopia: when no accommodation ability remains
- Premature presbyopia: At an early age
- Nocturnal presbyopia: Decrease amplitude of accommodation in dim light.
5. Presbyopia can be found via a comprehensive eye exam
Presbyopia is diagnosed by basic eye examination, usually administered by an ophthalmologist or optometrist. A complete eye exam includes a series of tests. The optician may put the drops in the eye as a pupil, which may make the eyes more sensitive to light for a few hours later. Relaxation allows the doctor to easily assess the inside of the eye.
Doctors can use different instruments, aimed at light at the eye and require consideration through a series of lenses to check the distance and near vision. Each experiment allows doctors to evaluate a different aspect of vision. The full test may take about 45-90 minutes. The American Eye Institute recommends complete eye exams:
- At least once between the ages of 20 and 29.
- There are at least twice between ages 30 and 39.
- Every 2-4 years between the ages of 40 and 64.
- Every first to two years at age 65.
Depending on the results, your doctor may recommend checking more often. For example, if wearing glasses, the eyes may need more frequent checks.
6. You can have both presbyopia and hyperopia
Presbyopia is physiological due to old age. Being farsighted, it’s possible to suffer from presbyopia when you are old. Farsightedness can occur at any age, congenital, and other diseases. Presbyopia occurs when the age is old. In general, it’s so difficult for far-sighted people to look far or near, the presbyopia people look better in far distance. Hyperopia is often due to congenital short-term congenital; due to heredity. If the parents are farsighted, their babies are more likely to develop this disease.
Some cases of disease due to not keeping the right distance when studying, working, often looking away makes the glass always collapse (stretch), gradually losing the elasticity, losing the ability to expand.
For the elderly, the reason is that the glass has been aging, losing its elasticity, not bulging. Eyes with farsightedness cannot be trained to look back to normal but wear glasses.
7. Presbyopia does not offset pre-existing myopia
If you are a person with nearsightedness, when you are old, your myopia will not be able to get away. This means that a nearsighted person with presbyopia will still be nearsighted and unable to see things from a long distance without glasses. However, for an adult, it is still possible to see things without glasses.
8. Presbyopia brings new blood into process
Many scientists believe that presbyopia originates from the formation of proteins in the lens, causing fibrosis, making the lens hard and losing its elasticity over time. At that time, the lens is no longer able to expand, change the convergence capacity, serving for the regulation as young. In addition, eyelash also plays an important role. In older people, the tone of these muscle fibers is reduced, not strong enough to pull the ligaments around the vitreous lens, causing the lens to harden and only one convergence point instead of a convergence band.
In middle-aged people (usually 40 years old) when looking at or reading a book, it is blurry and to see clearly, the person must take the book away from the eyes. That is presbyopia. In addition, people with chronic diseases: systemic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes; families with glaucoma or macular degeneration; working environment that is harmful to the eyes or works hard with the eyes. The whole body has problems with metabolic disorders, blood fat, thyroid, arthritis, depression, more prone to presbyopia. In contrast, presbyopia appears slowly in myopia.
9. Some non-surgical treatments are beneficial to support presbyopia people
As we all know, wearing glasses is a temporary measure used for most eye defects. For presbyopia, it is also considered to be a temporary and widely used effective measure. In addition to this measure, there are many other nonsurgical treatments as follows:
+ Pharmacologic treatment
Pharmacological treatment offers one of the most attractive options for the future of premenopausal treatment, especially in cases of early manifestations of subjective vision problem.
Parasymomimetic in different combinations or with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug or with a heat-treated drug has been tested. They are thought to stimulate sympathetic conservation and cause body stimulation and miosis causes increased concentration. Most affects diminish after a few hours, however, side effects include headaches, eye stings and nausea.
Another eye drops use a different approach - targeting crystal lenses for treating farsightedness. Pirenoxine eye drops have been shown to inhibit hard crystalline lenses in mice. The same effect was noted in a small, randomized controlled study conducted on 18 Japanese men with early farsightedness, clinically proven by improving adaption amplitude - but not at men have a suitable margin near zero. Despite the small sample size, these results provide encouraging evidence that pyridoxine eye drops can prevent presbyopia. A choline ester 1.5% lipoic eye ointment is also being developed. It has been shown to reduce crystal protein disulfide bonds, soften the lens and maintain its ability to change its shape while staying.
+ Electrostimulation
The use of pulsed electrostatic method is being studied with Ocufit machine (SOOFT Italy, Fermo, Italy) as a minimally invasive means for restoring accommodation. It aims to revive muscle contraction to overcome higher resistance in the treatment complex - lenses, zonules and choriones - created by aging. The only side effect is feeling dry eyes. Further studies are underway, especially regarding optimization of electrostatic parameters and development of custom protocols or programs to retain the positive effect of treatment. This procedure is thought to be effective for patients with early farsightedness. Static electricity is a complex treatment that will require special equipment. Its results are predicted to be marginal and perhaps very limited over time, requiring continuous application and treatment
10. Surgical treatments can cure presbyopia
+ Corneal Transplants
Kamra became the first corneal inlay approved by the FDA for use in vision correction surgery performed in the United States. Developed by AcuFocus, Kamra prints are also sold in nearly 50 countries worldwide.
KAMRA Inlay is an FDA-approved implant. That means a doctor will surgically place it in one eye. It can work for people with presbyopia who haven’t had cataract surgery.
Other procedures are available as well. Ask your doctor what’s best for you.
+ Multifocal Lens Implant
Some ophthalmologists use a procedure to remove lenses in each eye and replace it with a synthetic lens. This is called external lens implant. Some people choose this method even after years of Lasik surgery without glasses.
Can be applied to patients who have been treated with single-lens cataract surgery, either nearsighted or farsighted, and requires patients to wear additional reading glasses to have adequate vision. Multifocal vitreous implant, also known as a focal lens which is surgically inserted into the eye to give vision to the near, medium and distant objects without wearing glasses after surgery. art. The structure of multifocal lenses has a lot of concentric circles that react as many areas and can give you a clear view at different distances.
Multifocal lens implant used to treat presbyopia (the concentration of poor lens due to old age), cataract (blurred, cloudy lens), and for those who do not want to wear reading glasses or contact lenses.
The sequela after a multifocal lens transplant are rare (less than 1%). The risk ratio may increase if you have serious illnesses or eyes with other diseases. Some possible sequelaes as follow: Swelling, inflammation; Bleed; Infection; Retinal detachment; Loss of vision. Benefits of multifocal lens implants are: Perfect visual acuity at many distances (near, medium and long). Reduce dependence on eyeglasses and contact lenses. More independent by improving confidence.
+ Presbyond Surgery
Presbyopia cases can be treated with Presbyond. But if you have just been presbyopia, both with the refractive error such as near, perturbation, Presbyond is the ideal solution because it can completely solve all the problems in the same treatment step. Presbyond is also suitable for people who used LASIK surgery, cataract surgery or set single objective glasses to improve vision.
Presbyond presbyopia treatment combines the accuracy of laser refractive surgery on the cornea, with the impact on the high-order aberration component of the eye, to increase the depth of field of vision to maintain quality. Visual quantity in the visual range for patients.
Presbyond uses excimer lasers to create spherical aberration for the eye, increasing the range of effects more than conventional laser monocular surgery. In this method, the doctor will proactively create a dominant eye to see distant objects and unintentional eyes to see things closely. When combined with binocular vision, the patient will have a well-matched visual area not only for visionary activities (driving, movie screen, hall, meeting room), looking closely (reading books, newspapers, telephone) but also in the middle area (computer screen, car dashboard).
The Presbyond method creates a flexible, comfortable viewing area with amplitude that stretches from a distance to near and convenient for every patient's operation without depending on the glasses. It is worth mentioning that the time for 2-eye surgery under this method only takes about 10 minutes, completely using lasers. The patient's eyesight improved very quickly after surgery.
11. Certain factors can make you more likely to develop presbyopia
Taking the following drugs can put you at a higher risk of premature presbyopia: alcohol, anti-anxiety drugs, anti-depressants, anti-histamines, anti-psychotics, anti-spasmodics, diuretics.
Other factors that may put you at a higher risk of premature presbyopia are:
being female; having intraocular surgery, or surgery done on the inside of the eye; eating an unhealthy diet; having decompression sickness, or “the bends,” which results from rapid decompression and typically occurs in scuba divers that surface too quickly.
12. It’s better to improve presbyopia by some useful ways
You will be able to control this disease if you take the following measures:
- Have a proper diet: You should maintain a diet rich in vitamins that are beneficial to your eyes, especially vitamins A, B, and E. You should eat a lot of yellow and dark green fruits and vegetables because they contain essential vitamins and help your eyes. eyes always work well, prevent eye degeneration.
- Wear glasses and use wide-brimmed hats: When going out, you should wear sunglasses or a hat to avoid ultraviolet rays affecting the eyes.
- Get an eye exam: When you have strange eye symptoms, you should see your doctor for helpful advice. If you have any questions, please consult your doctor for advice on the best treatment support method.