Presbyopia (far-sightedness) is the most common visual disorder affecting the Spanish population around the age of 40, and it is on the increase. It is currently estimated that around 40% of Spaniards suffer from it (around 18 million people) and within 10 years, given the increased life expectancy, more than half of the Spanish population will suffer from this problem.
Until now, people with eye strain have been forced to wear glasses with bifocal or progressive lenses, or multifocal contact lenses to resolve presbyopia, yet these are solutions that reduce the quality of life. Now, laser treatment and intraocular lenses offer a better, high-quality solution.
What is presbyopia or eyestrain?
The normal eye, when relaxed, is adapted for long-distance vision. When it needs to view something close-up, such as a book, mobile phone screen, restaurant menu, etc., the eye has to change its focus through a process we call accommodation, which is carried out by the crystalline.
The lens, part of the eye system and located behind the iris, has the function of focusing images, similar to the zoom on a camera.
Over the years, the lens gradually loses its elasticity, and with it, its capacity for accommodation; this inevitably leads to presbyopia or eyestrain, or rather, the inability to few objects close-up.
This elasticity is not lost all of a sudden, but deteriorates gradually from the ages of 40 to 45 upwards for around 10 years, until it is lost completely.
However, there is a solution to eyestrain.
At Clínica Baviera we offer two alternative treatments: laser therapy and the multifocal intraocular lens.
- Laser treatment (combined sight) is similar to that used for the correction of myopia, which we call blended vision or monovision. This treatment can be used to correct presbyopia, vastly improving intermediate and close-up vision. Although we use both of our eyes to see, one is better adapted for viewing distant objects (dominant eye), while the other is better at viewing close-up objects (reading eye). Blended Vision is designed to enhance this specialisation, without altering the awareness of close-up and remote binocular vision.
- Treatment with an intraocular lens (multifocal vision), consists of removing the lens having already lost or which is losing its capacity to focus on close-up objects and replacing it with an artificial, multifocal intraocular lens. This lens, thanks to what is known as pseudoaccommodation (offering three levels of fixed focus: long, medium, and short distance, with the brain responsible for choosing the most suitable focus for each situation), gives patients a complete range of vision to carry out activities from reading a book to driving, all without the need for glasses.
Using these techniques, we are able to eliminate the need for glasses and contact lenses for long-distance vision, while giving the patient a level of near-sighted vision suitable for everyday life.
Both are outpatient treatments and have a quick recovery time.
Once you schedule an appointment, your eye doctor can examine your case and inform you of the most suitable treatment for you.
