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Discover more about this condition and how to treat it
Long-sightedness can affect people of all ages. Approximately 10% of adults have long-sightedness. Not all people with long-sightedness need glasses or contact lenses to correct it.
Long-sightedness – also known as hyperopia or farsightedness – makes it difficult to focus on objects close up.
Many people confuse long-sightedness with short-sightedness. Long-sightedness does not affect your distance vision, but it does affect your ability to focus on near objects.
Age-related long-sightedness is called presbyopia and relates to a stiffening of the eye’s lens. Both types of long-sightedness are perfectly normal and easily treated.
Symptoms
If you find it difficult to focus on things close up, or if objects near to you appear blurry, it could be a sign that you suffer from long-sightedness. Distance vision in long-sighted people generally remains clear.
Long-sightedness makes reading difficult, particularly if the type is small. You may find yourself often squinting or holding books and newspapers at arm’s length so that you can focus on the text.
Many long-sighted people suffer sore and tired eyes from over-straining them in the effort to view things close up. Headaches from eye strain are also a common symptom among people with long-sightedness.
To understand long-sightedness, it first helps to know how the eye works.
Long-sightedness is a refractive error caused by an imperfection in the eye. The imperfection changes the way your eye focuses the light rays that pass into it. This can happen when:
- The eyeball is shorter than normal
- The cornea is less curved than normal
- The lens is thinner than normal
When any of these imperfections occur, it changes the eye’s focusing point so that light rays focus behind your retina instead of onto it. This makes close-up objects look blurry. Distance objects still appear clear because they don’t need as much focusing power, so they focus on your retina properly.
Hyperopia is an inherited condition, which means you’re more likely to suffer long-sightedness if one of your parents has it. Hyperopia can develop in childhood, although symptoms are most common among adults.
Presbyopia
Presbyopia is age-related long-sightedness.
People with long-sightedness generally have good vision aside from the refractive error.
Traditionally, many people treat their refractive error with glasses and contacts. However, for permanent vision correction and freedom from the hassles of glasses and contacts, laser vision correction is an excellent option.
What are my options for correcting severe long-sightedness?
Glasses or contact lenses are, of course, an option. But, if you live an active lifestyle, you may want to consider laser vision correction or implantable contact lenses.
Can eye drops cure long-sightedness?
There are no eye drops that can cure long-sightedness.
Will Long sightedness get worse with time?
Long-sightedness does tend to progress in adults due to the normal ageing process of the eye. However, the correctly powered vision correction device (glasses or contacts) or vision correction surgery allows most people to retain great vision.
What happens if you leave severe longsightedness untreated?
If untreated, longsightedness can lead to headaches, eye strain, squinting, frequent blinking, difficulty working on a computer or reading.
Discover if you could be free from glasses and contacts
Everyone deserves a life free from glasses and contacts, but not everyone is suitable. The best way to find out if vision correction is right for you is to book a free laser assessment. You’ll get a clear and honest answer on your suitability and treatment options.
Discover if you could be free from glasses and contacts
Everyone deserves a life free from glasses and contacts, but not everyone is suitable. The best way to find out if vision correction is right for you is to book a free laser assessment. You’ll get a clear and honest answer on your suitability and treatment options.
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Are you looking for a new perspective of life? In this post, Dr Nick Mantell explains the different types of lasers treatments and that Lasik is the most frequently performed, elective, laser vision correction surgery.
What are the benefits of PRK?
Nothing beats the comfort of saying yes to vision correction with PRK. The exhilaration of going for a run, breaking a sweat whilst working out, or snuggling into bed with your favourite read, without needing external aid is priceless. What's more, this painless surgery lasts no longer than 15-minutes. Learn more in this blog with Dr Adam Watson from the Eye Institute.
Follow the links below to learn more about treating long-sightedness from authoritative sources.
Short sightedness is the most common refractive error among children and young adults worldwide.
Also called myopia, short sightedness occurs in 30 to 40 percent of adults in the United States and Europe, and in up to 80 percent of the Asian population. The prevalence of myopia has been increasing rapidly in recent decades, and it’s been predicted that by the year 2050, about half of the world’s population will be shortsighted.
Astigmatism is a common condition in which the surface of the eye, or cornea, is not curved in the normal way, leading to blurred vision.
The abnormal curve of the cornea means that when light enters the eye, it is not correctly focused on the retina, resulting in an unclear image.
Astigmatism may also be caused by an irregularly shaped lens, located behind the cornea.
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