Posts Tagged ‘presbyopia’

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I Heard a Rumour

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

After a hectic week in practice, chatting to patients face to face instead of online conversations, I’ve again been faced with some universal questions that crop up very regularly. They’re perhaps not the kind of query that you’d ask your optician about, more the sort of untrue-truth that everyone seems to believe. So let’s try some myth busting and dispel these rumours once and for all……..

I know that if I have an eye test I’ll get the answers wrong, and end up with glasses….. Just because the optician is asking for a response from you, it doesn’t mean your eyesight will depend on your replies for ever after! Several parts of the test give your final lens power, and they will re-check again and again, with tiny differences in the options to refine and perfect your prescription. They will know if one answer is a bit off kilter!

I’ve got an astigmatism, so I can’t wear contact lenses……..An astigmatism is a common eye defect that means your eyeball is shaped more like a rugby ball than a football, and your lens prescription has one power to correct the long axis of the rugby ball, and one for the short. We can do this with specs or contact lenses, and nowadays it’s rare for anyone not to be able to wear contact lenses, at least for some of the time.

I need help for reading, so I’m long sighted…..Before age forty, eye defects fall into the categories of long or short sightedness, possibly with an astigmatism too. If you’re long sighted vision is tricky at all distances, if you’re short sighted you can see close too but not far away. After age forty your eyes lose the ability to focus close too, regardless of your general prescription. This is called presbyopia. So you need correction for your long or short sightedness, and the presbyopia. This usually involves varifocals, bifocals or specs for reading and distance.

If I wear glasses my eyes will get weaker……..Your eye defect, whether long sighted, short sighted or astigmatic are caused by the shape and curve of the eyeball and some of the structures that contribute to your sight. You can’t change those factors, whatever you do. Glasses will just make you used to seeing clearly, so you’ll feel more comfortable with them on. We can’t perform the miracle of changing your sight!!

Varifocal Glasses

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Back to Varifocal Basics

Monday, June 6th, 2011

The one topic that crops up again and again in opticians across the land is patient’s worries about varifocals. Everyone knows someone who didn’t get on with them, or tried them twenty years ago and they didn’t work………so here are the basic truths about these wonderful lenses, which in reality really will change your life in a very good way…..

Around the magic age of forty plus life begins – and so does the problem of Presbyopia. This is a natural ageing process of the eye, where you lose the ability to see fine detail close to, making it tricky to thread needles, use phone books and read the small print. Varifocals allow you to have your far distance and close work prescription in a single lens, with no visible line. The lens power is blended from near to far, with middle distance in the centre. Thus you can sit at your desk, see the clock across the room, read fine print close too, and have comfortable sight for the computer. So what’s the catch? What is the problem with these lenses?

Firstly, you do have to take time to adapt to them, and many patients are very impatient about this! Hide your old specs away, pop the varifocals on. And get on with your life. For the first few days you might feel your floor is sloping, you might get a headache, but this wears off quickly if you stick with it. You may have to adjust your working distance to your computer screen, or your car seat, and in working with the specs in this way you’ll adapt easily.

After a week or so you’ll have forgotten you’re wearing them, but it does take a few days for the swinging sensation of the different distances to calm down. Don’t be tempted to swap back to old specs, even for a few hours. Your poor little brain will switch back to it’s comfort zone and you’ll be back to square one with the new lenses. Here at the IGC we understand your concerns, so if you try any lenses from us that don’t work, we will refund you – no quibble. So what are you waiting for? A no risk opportunity to make life easier, what could be more basic than that?!

Varifocal Glasses

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To See or not to See!

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

For those of us over fifty, we’re well aware of the little niggles and gripes that advancing years inflict on our creaking bones. For young upstarts who aren’t as mature as we are, they don’t know yet about that time of life when your arms are just not long enough to manage small print anymore. So although our wisdom won’t help with the aching joints, we can tell you how we cope with the whole new world that is presbyopia……

It comes to us all – a little while after your Fortieth you become Presbyopic, and need magnifying specs for small print and fine detail. You can stretch your arms out for a while, but then you have to succumb to the help of the optician, who will give you several options as to what will suit your lifestyle. A few case histories might give you an idea of what will work for you…..

Thomas 49 Graphic Artist

“I only have prescription lenses for reading, my far away sight is perfect. I have a grand total of eight pairs of reading specs that I leave at my desk, by my armchair, in the golf bag etc. I don’t have them on my face all the time but they’re around when I want them. The weaker pairs are good for the computer, the strongest for indistinct print or tiny things. I like the bigger lenses for my drawing board, but I can still see my biggest pc monitor without glasses, so I’ve got used to which to wear at different work stations. My advice is to have lots of pairs, all with different colour frames so you know which is which!!

Lesley 52 Teacher

I’ve always been short sighted, so up until a couple of years ago I took my specs off to read. They got broken in school so I now have varifocals, which I leave on all the time. I can see across the glass room, write comfortably on the white board, and then see to read close up. Now that I’ve adjusted to the lenses, which took a few days, I don’t even notice the difference.

Ray 65 Retired

I left work last year, so my computer use is sporadic through the day, I like to read and I need glasses for long distance. I like my full distance glasses for driving, as I have an old neck injury that means I find it hard to look to the sides when I reverse the car. I use an office desk lens for the computer and for reading, but I can’t see around the room in it. I don’t mind having two pairs, it works for me!!

Lacey 58 Boutique Owner

I love clothes and accessories, so I wear contact lenses when I go out, and glasses for work. I like to look different for social occasions, so my contacts go out when I do! I have one lens for reading and one for distance, apparently this works well if your eyes are compatible with the theory, and I use daily disposable lenses which I wear when I need them. I have a very glam leopard print frame with varifocals in it for work. They’re fun and trendy to use in the shop!

Varifocal Glasses

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Accommodation Wanted!

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

We all know that deep inside us our brains are hard at work, managing our bodily functions with very little help or effort on the part of our conscious minds. More juggling goes on than we could imagine, all in the interest of us keeping fit, healthy, and able to go about our day to day lives. If you’re under the age of forty there’s one miraculous task that goes on, and you won’t even notice it until it’s gone….

Accommodation is an amazing function of the eye, and it allows us to see clearly both far away and close up, effortlessly allowing us to switch focus so we see at any distance. Look up from your desk to the horizon and back to your fingernails, and accommodation is what’s allowing you to see at all of these focal lengths.

Your eyes accommodate from babyhood upwards, thanks to a wonderful little organ called the crystalline lens, which works hard all day every day inside your eyeball. The lens is suspended by ligaments which hold it in place, and they contract and stretch as you look around. This changes the shape of the crystalline lens and therefore it’s power, making it stronger or weaker to focus near or far away. And you never feel a thing!!

At birth, we have very stretchy lenses which allow us to see really close too – for important things like Mummy’s face! But as time goes on the lens continues to increase in layers within the eye, and it loses elasticity. With this change we start to notice we can’t see very close too any more, and desperately move things further away to try and focus on them! One day your arms get too short and your optician has the job of replacing the function of the crystalline lens with a spec version.

This ageing change within the eye is called presbyopia – Greek for ‘old eye’ – and there’s no escaping it, it comes to us all! So if you had perfect sight, short sight or long sight, at some point from the forties onwards you’ll need glasses for close work. You may choose separate specs for reading, varifocals or bifocals, as specs or contact lenses, and they will do the job that accommodation once did for you. So if you’ve still got it, appreciate it now, and if its’ gone, just get some varifocals and pretend

Varifocal Glasses

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How you see it….

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

For those blessed with perfect sight, whether thanks to specs or what nature gave them, it’s difficult to imagine what life must be like if you have a sight defect that can’t be corrected, or if you’re unable to communicate that your vision is poor. Let’s take a moment to consider those whose world is less than crystal clear.

Parents are often mortified to find out that their children have a sight defect, and that they didn’t realise. For the child however, how would they know that their soft and fuzzy world isn’t what we see? This is why it’s important to have your child’s sight tested as early as possible, and then carry on with regular check ups. If they sit close to the TV or screen, have poor concentration, or screw their eyes up, then a check up will give you peace of mind. They don’t know any different, and at a young age their eyes accommodate to help them to see, which in the long term may cause eye strain.

Adults can have sight problems creep up on them without them realising that their sight has deteriorated. Fitting someone who has slowly become short sighted can be a miracle cure – suddenly the world is 3D again, there are leaves on the trees, bricks in walls! If the eyes change slowly it’s easy for the patient not to notice the gradual change in their sight. Again, regular eye exams mean you’re always up to the driving standard and you’re making the most of your sight.

Presbyopia gradually occurs over the age of forty, with close work becoming increasingly difficult. You find yourself moving small print to arm’s length to see it, struggling to thread a needle, or swearing over the poor quality of newsprint nowadays! The problem gradually worsens until you can’t get things into focus however far away you put them! Simple reading specs will restore your sight, so don’t pull a muscle stretching your arms indefinitely!

Varifocal Glasses

Eye disease can also be an ongoing problem that the patient is unaware of. Glaucoma causes the visual field to diminish, Macular degeneration causes loss of central vision. For elderly patient who don’t go out very much, they may not notice the loss of their peripheral vision. Glaucoma is easily treated in the early stages, so missing an eye test can be disastrous if early signs are missed. There are therapies for macular degeneration too, so again, early detection is vital. With all the issues mentioned above, there’s an easy solution which will correct your sight in the short term, and protect it in the long term. Book an eye exam and make sure that how you see things is how the rest of us see them too!

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As Young as you Feel

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

We all know that our bodies throw us a few curve balls as get older…..aches and pains, grey hairs, senior moments….and of course Presbyopia! Much to the excitement of Opticians everywhere, we can finally sell even the most eagle eyed amongst you some specs. Presbyopia occurs as the lens inside the eye stiffens over time and makes it increasingly difficult to see fine detail and small print.

In years gone by, we all joked with patients that Presbyopia is a sign of getting old, a sure indicator of middle age. Things in 2010 are however a little different. What does a fifty year old look like today? How many of us succumb to elasticated waistbands, comfy slippers and letting our wrinkles run free? Nowadays Botox is as common as mascara, and none of us are willing to admit to middle age, even at the age of forty, fifty and beyond. Would you want to tell George Clooney, Shah Rukh Khan or Brad Pitt that they’re old?!

So if these guys are still hot property, then potentially so is every other forty plus Presbyope, who just happens to need a little help for close work. Some suggestions to help stave off the Botox and choose the easy option to look younger:

1.Never go for Bifocals! The visible line is a dead giveaway, and the next step will be the Zimmer frame!

2.Avoid the dreaded half moon reading specs, you’ll look like an aged Headmaster. If you do need to look over your glasses pick a shallow little trendy frame and only peer over the top if no one else is watching.

3.Try varifocals – there’s no line, they’ll fit in the trendiest of tiny frames, and you can see the computer, small print and far distance without anyone guessing your age.

4.Talk to your Optician about varifocal contact lenses, for permanent or part time wear.

As we all live longer and healthier lives, Presbyopia will be a nuisance that we live with for many years. Don’t pick an ageing solution that makes you feel bad about it!

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As Time Goes By……..

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

As well as the usual aches and pains we expect from middle age onwards, our eyes gradually start to cause a few problems too. The most common complaint is presbyopia, causing us to find small print increasingly hard to see from the mid-forties. This is simply corrected with reading glasses, which you can pick up cheaply from the online optician such as The Internet Glasses Company. Ready reading glasses are useful to quickly glance at things, but for concentrated periods of wear most patients need their full and correctly made up prescription.

As time goes on it’s not just the size of print that causes difficulty. The contrast of coloured lettering on coloured paper, particularly if written in fancy fonts, can be hard to read comfortably. Patients often return to the optician because they struggle with reading, but the light they use to read by can be the culprit. Often a reading lamp will help, experiment with the height and angle to give a good spread of light that doesn’t cause eye strain by creating strong glare.

If cataracts start to form then this can interfere with your vision by altering your colour perception, as well as decreasing your standard of vision. The cataract cannot be operated on until it is ready, so keep up to date with your eye exams and make sure your glasses are as good as they can possibly be. Have them updated even for a small change, as it may make a big difference to your daily life.

As time goes by reading glasses may not be enough for some elderly patients with serious deterioration in their vision. They may need to move on to more complex solutions such as low vision aids, specifically tailored for different eye conditions. Always go back to your optician if sight deteriorates, as they can refer you to different specialists who can provide further help.

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Another Forty Year Old Virgin!

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Well I finally faced up to my fears last week, and took a brave step into a whole new world……don’t be too impressed…..it may not be that big a deal to you!!  Basically I finally got my eyes tested and started wearing my new glasses!

I’d been in denial for quite a while actually, pretending that I could still see to read, ignoring the crows feet rapidly spreading because I have to squint after dark to see the paper. Guessing at menus in restaurants because they’re all small writing in fancy fonts. Several friends told me that this is what happens when you get to forty.  Not bad going then as I’m now forty-six,  so I went for my first ever test, quite liked all the gadgets and technical stuff, left clutching my glasses lenses prescription and a slight feeling of confusion!

I was too scared to talk to the optician, although she seemed really nice. Perhaps I’ve got some kind of consulting room phobia. I got online when I got home and played around with some internet glasses selling sites. I was quite relieved that I only need specs for reading, and at last they didn’t find any bizarre diseases or give me big chunky bottle bottom lenses. I pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and soon my specs were winging their way towards me.

I like wearing them actually, they’re kind of smart, and I feel they give me an intellectual air! I no longer have to pretend to do the Times crossword! Writing is blacker and sharper, and although I can still manage in daylight, they’re definitely better in the evenings. The optician says my near sight will get slightly worse over time, but I’ll just need stronger lenses. This is called Presbyopia, when you need glasses for reading. Just another part of getting older!

I’m getting a second pair so I can keep them at work, in case I do need them for reading very small print. They’re making life an awful lot easier, so I wish I’d gone a couple of years ago.

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Let’s Be Accommodating!

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Of all the wonderful things that our bodies are capable of, there’s a very clever system in your eyes that does a great deal of work without you ever having to think about it! It lets us lead busy, dynamic, varied lives and lets us work, rest and play with clear vision and no effort what so ever. This little trick that the eye performs is called accommodation, and the only time we ever think about it is when it stops working….

Your eyes are capable of accommodation from birth onwards, and the process is due to the crystalline lens, a lens that works away inside your eyeball. This lens is held by ligaments which keep it suspended, and they stretch the lens or relax it to allow you to focus on near or far objects. By altering the shape of the lens it effectively gives you a system of different powers to look through, thereby letting you see at different distances.

As babies, we have very bouncy lenses which change power and let us see really close too. As we age the lens keeps growing, adding layers like an onion. As the years go by we loose the very close focus, until around the mid-forties when the focus is just too far away to see close too, and our arms get too short to read comfortably. If you had a group of people of different ages with perfect vision, you could plot accommodation changes by seeing how close they can read. You would see that as they get older they have to hold things further away.

We call the need for near sight correction presbyopia, and at this stage people need  separate lens powers for distance and reading. It’s only when this happens that we realise how easy life was when accommodation did all the work for us! Any solution for the close work problem is a compromise, and while most people find the glasses and prescription lenses that suit them, it’s still not as easy as when accommodation was accommodating their requirements!

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Reading Made Easy!

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

There has been lots written about presbyopia, and what your options are at this stage. We do however gets lots of queries, so here is a quick re-cap on what your choices are.

Around age forty you’ll find your arms get too short! You can still thread a needle or see small print, but you have to hold it further away. Your eyes have become presbyopic and you need help for reading. To decide on the solution to this problem you need to think about whether you need correction for reading, middle, and/or far distances.

A)  If you only have a reading prescription – buy single vision reading glasses. This gives you a wide field of view, they are cheap, easy to wear, and you can keep several pairs by the phone, at work etc. Choose small shallow frames, and then you can look over the top of them to see in the distance.

B)   If you have a reading and middle distance prescription – you can have separate pairs for middle distance and reading. This will work if you only do one thing at a time, like read small print (reading specs) or use a computer (middle distance specs) If however you need to multi-task, then you could go for varifocals – see close, middle distance and far away – good if you don’t use a computer all day long. If you do lots of VDU work, you could have a bifocal, with middle distance power in the main part of the lens, and reading in the segment at the bottom.

C)   If you have a reading, middle distance and distance prescription – then you need varifocals, which have all three powers in one lens. This will let you do everything without swapping glasses around. If you do lots of VDU work or lots of close work, then you could have a separate single vision pair for specific tasks.

Mail the IGC if you need advice, remember that buying from an online optician is cheap enough to let you have separate pairs for your individual needs. Our qualified opticians and dispensing opticians can give you professional help at bargain cost.

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