What Is Presbyopia?
By Anna Barden
Reviewed by Thomas Stokkermans, OD, PhD, FAAO on October 3, 2024
Presbyopia Overview
What is presbyopia in simple words? Age-related farsightedness. More specifically, presbyopia is the loss of near focusing ability that most people start to experience in their 40s. It’s a normal and natural part of aging that affects everyone eventually.
Presbyopia makes it difficult to focus on up-close objects, which can make things like books, menus, newspapers, and phone screens appear blurry. Fortunately, it can be corrected, often with a pair of over-the-counter reading glasses.
What Causes Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is caused by age-related changes to the eye’s natural crystalline lens. The lens focuses light directly onto the retina at the back of the eye to help you see clearly at various distances.
The muscle surrounding the lens changes the lens’s shape to bring objects into focus:
- It contracts to focus on nearby objects.
- It relaxes to focus on distant objects.
When you’re younger, the lens is pliable and changes shape easily. But as you age, the eye’s natural crystalline lens loses flexibility and becomes thicker. Without its elasticity, the lens struggles to focus on nearby objects, resulting in presbyopia.
Presbyopia Symptoms
People with presbyopia may experience the following symptoms separately or at the same time:
- Blurred vision up close or at reading distance
- The need to hold a phone or book farther away to see better
- Trouble reading small font
- Squinting to read things close up
- The need for more light during near work
- Headaches or eye strain during or after working on close-up tasks
Symptoms typically start around age 40 and get worse until they level off around age 65.
Let your eye doctor know of any changes in your vision to ensure that you can see as clearly as possible. If you experience any dramatic vision changes or eye symptoms, call your eye doctor immediately.
How Is Presbyopia Corrected?
Presbyopia has several correction options, including:
- Glasses – Options include over-the-counter reading glasses and prescription glasses with progressive or bifocal lenses.
- Contact lenses – Contacts for presbyopia include monovision lenses (where one contact lens corrects near vision and the other corrects distance vision) and multifocal contacts (which correct multiple distances in each lens).
- Miotic eye drops – Pilocarpine prescription eye drops temporarily constrict the pupil (a process called miosis). Making the pupil smaller helps the eye’s natural crystalline lens focus better, improving near vision.
- Surgery – Surgical options include LASIK (vision correction surgery) and corneal inlay surgery (insertion of a lens in the cornea of your non-dominant eye to improve near focus).
Some options are more expensive than others, and some aren’t right for everyone. The best choice for you will depend on your vision needs, personal preferences, budget, and lifestyle. Speak with your eye care provider to determine which presbyopia treatment you should pursue.
Glasses for Presbyopia
Several types of eyeglasses can correct presbyopia. Some can correct your distance and intermediate vision as well. Glasses for presbyopia include:
Over-the-Counter Reading Glasses
You can get reading glasses without a prescription at many retailers online or in person, but the lens powers may be limited. Most brick-and-mortar stores carry reading glasses with lens powers from +1.00 diopters to +2.50 diopters, increasing in increments of 0.25.
Foster Grant offers several styles of non-prescription reading glasses, including:
- Full-magnification readers – With a single reading strength throughout the entire lens, this type is most often used when focusing on a single task such as reading, texting, or doing near work.
- Multi Focus™ reading glasses – These lenses include three magnifications to help you see clearly while reading, using a computer, and interacting with others.
- Bifocal-style readers – The top part of each lens is unmagnified to allow for clear distance viewing, and your reading power is in the bottom portion to assist your close-up vision. Our Pop of Power® Bifocal Style readers are a popular option in this category.
- Reading sunglasses – Available with fully magnified or bifocal-style lenses, these glasses shield your eyes from the sun while you are reading outside.
Foster Grant has a wide variety of reading glasses with reading powers ranging from +1.00 D up to +3.50 D in some styles.
Prescription Reading Glasses
Some people need more power in their reading lenses than what is typically available over the counter. Others may need a different reading strength in each lens. If either is the case for you, you may need prescription reading glasses. These single-vision lenses can improve your near vision and correct additional problems, like astigmatism, if needed.
Lined Multifocals
If you need both near and distance vision correction, prescription multifocal eyeglass lenses could be a great fit for you. Examples include bifocal and trifocal lenses.
Bifocals have two sections in each lens to correct your vision. The top portion of the lens corrects distance vision, and the bottom corrects near vision. A visible line separates the two sections of the lens.
Trifocals have three sections in each lens to correct your vision. The top portion corrects distance vision, and the bottom section of the lens corrects near vision. The middle section of the trifocal lens corrects vision at an intermediate distance for computer work and tasks done at an arm’s length. Like bifocals, visible lines set apart the different sections in trifocal lenses.
Progressives
Like bifocals and trifocals, progressive lenses correct vision at multiple distances. However, they have a more gradual transition between prescription strengths, so there are no visible lines separating the powers. Many people prefer progressives because they feel this lack of lines gives them a more youthful appearance.
Presbyopia Prevention
Since presbyopia is a natural condition that comes with age, it can’t be prevented. Everyone gets presbyopia, even those who have never needed glasses or struggled with another vision problem before.
While presbyopia can’t be prevented, you can be proactive about your eye health. Keep up to date with your routine comprehensive eye exams and never hesitate to contact your eye doctor if you experience any dramatic changes to your vision or eye health.
Sources
- Presbyopia: What causes it and how to treat it. All About Vision. February 2019.*
- Presbyopia. Cleveland Clinic. July 2023.
- What is presbyopia and how is it corrected/treated? Glasses.com. July 2023.*
- Bifocals and trifocals: Still good options in some cases. All About Vision. February 2019.*
- Presbyopia. National Eye Institute. November 2023.
The sources listed here have been provided for informational purposes only. The citation of a particular source does not constitute an endorsement or approval of EssilorLuxottica products, services, or opinions by such source.
*Like Foster Grant, All About Vision, Glasses.com, and AAV Media, LLC are affiliates of EssilorLuxottica.