Why is it hard for me to focus upclose?

Presbyopia it’s one of the most common vision issues that people have when they come to their optometrist in Winnipeg.   Presbyopia Is the natural loss of our autofocus ability in our eye.   Inside our eye is a crystalline lens which can flex it’s shape to allow our eye to instantly and automatically focus on objects at different distances.  This autofocus ability is called accommodation.   When we are young we have a lot of autofocus ability, such that we can focus on objects that are very close to your face, but every day of our life we lose a little more autofocus ability.  When we reach our late 30’s, early 40’s the point of closest focus for most people reaches the distance that they normally hold objects to read…it’s about 40cm.   This is why people eventually need reading eye glasses or multifocal eye glasses.

When people notice this loss of auto-focus they will often visit their optometrist for an eye exam to find out what the problem is.    During the eye exam the eye doctor can perform tests to measure the amount of accommodation they have, explain the issue and give options to deal with presbyopia.

So what do you do when you develop presbyopia?   There is no surgery, eye drops or eye exercises that can restore this autofocus ability to the eye.   Optometrists will prescribe lenses to do the focusing that the natural eye cannot do it’s self any longer.   Essentially a person will require a different eye glass prescription for each distance they work at….driving, 40cm, 50cm, 60cm etc.

There are a number of optical solutions with eye glasses and contact lenses that an optometrist can prescribe in the eye exam.  Stay tuned for specific solutions in the rest of our presbyopia series.

Michael D. Nelson, OD FAAO

Optometrist