Farsightedness (Presbyopia)

Presbyopia is farsightedness. The word persbyopia was first used in 1697 to define the opposite of myopia (nearsightedness) by Strum. The lens in our eyes has the ability to change form. The lens loses its elasticity as the eye gets older and this causes difficulty in being able to see close objects. This disorder is a problem seen after the age of 40 and can be seen in patients who have never encountered any eye problems previously. It is defined as a farsightedness disorder due to old age.

What are the causes of presbyopia?
The lens within the eye of children and youngsters is soft. It can change its focus by tensing up the muscles in the eye and increase its refractory ability. This helps to focus more clearly on the objects that are close. The lens hardens as the person gets older and loses its ability to change shape. This makes focusing on close objects difficult and may need to be corrected around the age of 45. This problem may occur in hypermetropia patients earlier and myopia patients later or may not even occur in myopia patients at all. This is called presbyopia.

If the hypermetropia is not high, then the patient can see far distances without glasses. However, If the disorders number is high, the patient will not be able to clearly focus on the near or far objects.

Although it is not proved for definite, the closest theory that proves the reason for this disorder worsening with age is the cell aging theory. This theory also explains situations such as our hair going white and our eye cells losing their ability to see. Due to this reason, this disorder is not seen as a pathologic problem but a physiological problem.

Hypermetropia can develop due to pathological reasons. For example deformations of the eye ball such as obituary tumours that apply pressure to the back lobe, retinal detachment, eye tumours that elevate the retina, corneal plana and the traumatic dislocation of the lens may cause hypermetropia. It is important to diagnose the cause well and treat according to the cause.

Presbyopia patients have difficulty in seeing objects closer than 40-45 cm away; they push the objects further away to be able to see them better. When this happens they are advised to consult their optician for check-up and treatment.

What are the symptoms?
When a patient develops presbyopia, they have a tendency to hold the book, magazine or menu that they are reading at an arm’s length further than their 35-40 cm range. They may have blurry vision, headaches, aching eyes, tiredness and weariness.

Farsightedness (Hypermetropia) Diagnosis
There are two main methods used for diagnosis of eye disorders. After a thorough eye check-up a retinoscopy is conducted. The patient is shown the letter E in different sizes and asked which way the letter is pointing. Another eye check-up method, if the patient is a child, is to show the child images such as a bird, plane etc. and ask the child what they are if the child is at an age to know the difference.

In the retinoscopy diagnosis method, eye drops are put into the eye, this stops the accommodation reflex that automatically covers up hypermetropia for a short term which enables the real refraction to be discovered in the eye and objectively evaluated. Retinoscopy enables the measurement of the defect in the child’s or adult’s eye.

Different diagnosis and evaluation methods are used for children under the age of 3. For these, it is inspected whether or not the child follows their toy with their eyes, if they reach for an object given to them. The child’s reactions towards these visual stimulants are evaluated.

Farsightedness (Hypermetropia) Treatment
The most common treatment method for hypermetropia is the prescription of glasses. The glass of the glasses of hypermnetropia patients is thin and convex. This helps the light to focus on the retina and reduce the eyes inability to refract.

Contact lenses with the same optic ability can also be used to straighten the inability of the eye to refract and treat hypermetropia. Laser treatment can also be used in the treatment of hypermetropia.