Over 40? It May be Time to Talk about Presbyopia

Many of our patients over 40 years old notice that their eyes have lost the ability to focus up close, especially in low light. Having difficulty reading a book or restaurant menu up close is a sign of presbyopia. Presbyopia (from the Greek presbys = old man + ops = eye) is a common condition with aging where you lose your ability to focus on near objects. This diminished ability to focus on close objects occurs because the eye’s crystalline lens loses its elasticity as we age, making it more difficult to focus.
 

Don’t despair! The good news is that presbyopia is very treatable!
 

The first solution that may come to mind is reading glasses. However, carrying around a pair of reading glasses during the day and night is inconvenient. Have you ever been in the shower and not able to read the shampoo bottle? Reading glasses don’t help much in that case. Thankfully, multifocal contact lenses are an option that many people with presbyopia are taking advantage of.
 

One multifocal contact lens our practice recommends is CooperVision Biofinity® with Balanced Progressive™ Technology. In contrast to some contact lenses made for presbyopia – where the contact lens is built like ‘miniature bi-focal glasses’ with near vision correction on the bottom and distance vision correction on the top – the CooperVision Biofinity® multifocal lenses incorporate multiple vision correction zones on both lenses, providing excellent clarity for near, far, and in-between vision. They’re also naturally wettable and breathable, so they’re soft and comfortable on your eyes.
 

To learn more about presbyopia and whether contact lenses are right for you, please contact us to schedule an appointment with our eye doctors. We’re here to help you!