Presbyopia

The hardest working muscles of our body are our eye muscles, presbyopia, also called aging eye disease, affects patients over the age of 40, even those who have never needed glasses in their lives. It is not a refractive error, but a physiological loss of the eye’s ability to adapt – to focus at close range. Presbyopia can cause problems when reading, working on the computer and later when looking away (watching TV, driving a car).

It occurs between the 40th and 45th years of life, although in some patients it tends to occur even earlier. The first symptom is blurred vision and the inability to focus on shorter distances. Presbyopia worsens with age and peaks around the age of sixty, when it stabilises and no longer worsens.

HOW TO GET RID OF PRESBYOPIA
Presbyopia is usually corrected with reading glasses, but this is only a short-term solution. The disease progresses steadily and, after initial problems with short-distance vision, long- and medium-distance vision also deteriorates.

Doctors use various methods when surgically removing presbyopia. Each operation is preceded by a preoperative examination, after which the doctor determines the most appropriate method for treating presbyopia.

PRELEX method: intraocular surgery in which the patient’s maladaptive lens is replaced with an artificial multifocal lens that provides good short- and long-distance vision. Intraocular surgery also prevents the onset of cataracts and reduces the risk of developing traumatic glaucoma.

Presby LASIK: A variant of Lasik in which the excimer laser creates a profile on the cornea for long and short distance vision. However, this effect is usually only temporary.

Corneal implants: They create an area in the centre of the cornea for short-distance vision. However, the effect is not sufficient and the implant is usually removed because of the surrounding scarring.

Monovision: a process in which one eye is laser-modified for long-distance vision and the other for short-distance vision. However, depth (3D) perception is partially eroded after the application of this method.

Our doctors correct presbyopia using the SMART LENS method, which has the following advantages
The operation is performed under local anaesthesia,
Not painful
It only takes 20 minutes
Postoperative recovery is very fast,
Improvement in vision occurs on the second day.

FOR WHOM THE OPERATION IS SUITABLE
Any patient with presbyopia, an ageing eye condition, can undergo surgery. However, the patient’s suitability for surgery depends on age, occupation, progression of the defect and other eye disorders (glaucoma, retinal disease, …).

During the initial examination, you should consult a doctor about what kind of result you expect from the operation – whether you want to get rid of the glasses completely or whether it would be inconvenient for you to use them for a certain distance (computer, reading …).