Eyesight Correction
Once you reach your mid to late 40's it becomes inevitable that you will eventually start to need reading glasses. The process starts very gradually but by your early 50's it is highly likely that you will need to use your glasses for reading, using your phone, ipad etc. This will be the same if you have underlying long or short-sightedness.
This is known as presbyopia and is a natural process associated with the gradual stifening of the mechanism that alllows the eye to focus on near objects. Some short-sighted (myopic) individuals may be fortunate enough to get away with just taking off their glasses to read but this assumes that they wear glasses and not contact lenses. Also this would only work with low levels of shortsightedness. For everbody else, reading glasses will become the norm.
If you are over about 50 years of age and have been thinking about having correction for long or shortsightedness then it is more likely nowadays that you would be offered a lens based solution rather than the more 'traditional' laser surgical approach.
Laser eye correction has been available for nearly 30 years and the results can be truly remarkable but in the older age group the problem of presbyopia is less easy to address. For this reason the newer multifocal lenses have an increasing role in this age group.
Mr Baer has been performing cataract surgery for over 30 years and has vast experience in this procedure. Lens based refractive surgery is, to all intents and purposes, identical to cataract surgery. It is often given a distinctive name such as 'refractive lens exchange'. However the procedure is the same. A great deal of thought needs to be given to the type of lens used to maximise the visual potential.
For further information on the procedure and the different types of lens implants available please read the cataract section.
