Once we hit our forties, we all experience the feeling that
our arms are not long enough. Pulling
our reading material away, we curse under our breath that type has become
smaller and smaller. What really lies behind
this situation is the loss of accommodation. While we are young our lens has the ability
to swell changing our focal point and providing us with clear vision both at
distance and near-this is known as accommodation. Like the rest of our body, the aging process
takes its toll on our eyes and our lens begins to lose this ability.
So we accept that this is natural, but how can we contact
lens wearers adapt to this change? There
are a few options:
Option #1: Distance only
You can correct both eyes to see clearly in the
distance. You will remain glasses free
while running or enjoying a movie, but this will mean that whatever you hold up
close will be blurry. You will need to
join the masses in stockpiling mounds of reading glasses to assist you in your
close range tasks.
Option #2: Multifocals
There are a few multifocal contact lenses on the
market. They employ different designs to
offer near and far correction in one lens.
This is kind of a hit or miss deal.
Some patients love their multifocals while others never have luck with
them at all. As a general rule, distance
vision may not achieve 20/20 at distance or near, but the multifocal aspect may
provide the best help with the midrange (computer distance) vision. Many patients who opt for this are willing to
forego having crisp distance vision.
Option #3: Monovision
One eye (generally the dominant eye) is set to correct
distance vision while the second eye is set to correct near vision. In most, the brain will automatically choose
which eye to pay attention to. This can take
a while for your brain to adjust to so make sure you give it a fair shot. Try it for a few days before you become
frustrated.
You can wear contacts after 40!
It’s good to know that there are
ways to cope with presbyopia (or the loss of accommodation-also known as living
past 40). When you find that fountain of
youth, let us know. In the meantime, we
will make sure you can keep on looking for it.
See you soon!
