Presbyopia

In the middle of the 19th century, life expectancy in developed societies did not exceed 45 years, and presbyopia was the problem of elders. Presbyopia manifests itself as a refractive abnormality in all people aged 45-50 years.
Today 1.2 billion people are presbyopes and by 2020 this number will increase to 1.4 billion.

Presbyopia is due to the loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens of the eye, which results in a decrease in the ability to adapt and the inability to focus on short distances.

Key features of presbyopia are the difficulty of performing work from short distance, the removal of written texts and the need for more lighting. Visual acuity and sensitivity to light contrasts are lower than normal.

Presbyopia is restored by visually compensating for symptoms with eyeglasses or contact lenses.
The correction of presbyopia is customized. During the check-up, the Optometrist evaluates the habits, occupations and work needs of each person and selects the most appropriate glasses or contact lenses.

Presbyopia glasses can be simple, bifocal or multifocal.

Simple glasses are recommended for young elders, while the distance at which they work is specific.

Bifocal glasses have a dividing line between distant and near vision. They are used by those who wore glasses for distant vision, and the need arose to use glasses for near vision as well. Their advantage is that they combine distant and near correction.

Multifocal glasses provide good vision at all distances, but are suitable only for those who wear glasses continuously, i.e. they need refractive correction for long distances. Multifocal lenses have no obvious dividing line, but have multiple gradations of their binocular force. This makes them particularly functional in driving, because one can have excellent visual performance for long distance and at the same time, see well from both the mirrors and the instruments of the car. In work they help because with them the image for far, for the computer and for close is very satisfactory, while for those who read too many hours they are not suitable since the focus concerning near vision is limited. For this purpose, those who wear multifocal glasses and are book lovers should have a pair of simple presbyopia glasses for reading. Prefabricated presbyopic glasses have poor quality lenses of Chinese origin, while the optical centers of their lenses are specific. For these reasons they often cause headaches and fatigue in the eyes.

For people who wear contact lens, the best solution is to use simple presbyopic glasses in combination with contact lenses.
An alternative is multifocal contact lenses, which have optical zones of different strength for distant and near vision.

Presbyopia increases progressively over the years, so surgical procedures do not have the expected results and should be avoided.