Vision Correction Option for People Over Age 40
Your eyes are constantly changing. You may have had many different glasses or contact lens prescriptions over the years to address your nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism (known as refractive errors). However, after age 45 you may start noticing that it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to read fine print on things like clothing tags, restaurant menus, text messages and medicine bottle labels. This is probably not your refractive errors getting worse; instead, it’s most likely the development of presbyopia.
Presbyopia occurs to most people after age 45. It’s the gradual stiffening of your natural eye lens. When you are younger, your eye lenses are flexible, allowing your eyes to focus easily. Without this flexibility, your eyes can’t focus on up-close things as well – and this condition gets worse over time. You may start out only needing reading glasses with a strength of +1.25, but eventually need glasses that are +3.75 or much higher.
If You’re Over Age 40, LASIK May Not Be the Best Option
Presbyopia is not a refractive error, so it cannot be corrected by traditional LASIK methods. LASIK is done to alter the shape of your cornea so light entering your eyes can land more directly onto your retina. LASIK does not affect your actual eye lens, but there is a way to incorporate a slightly different version of LASIK to improve your up-close vision.
Monovision LASIK is a method where one eye is corrected for up-close vision and the other eye is corrected for distance vision. You may only need to have one eye treated in order to achieve your best results. Working together, the eyes can give you a full range of vision. This type of vision can take a little time to get used to so we may suggest you try monovision contact lenses first.
To learn more about monovision LASIK in Billings, contact us to schedule a free Consultation.