Presbyopia and Baby Boomers

There are almost 78 million baby boomers that are either currently experiencing vision difficulties in reading. Some are about to experience this very shortly. What is common to all is that they will come to know the world of presbyopia. This vision phenomenon eventually expresses itself with everyone on or about the age of 35 years. It is caused by the aging process as it relates to the natural eye lens and the muscle structure that assists it in the process of accommodation. This process is what normally allows for one’s ability to seamlessly see distant, intermediate, and near objects. Suddenly the newspaper or your favorite book becomes much more difficult to read at your usual reading distance. You find yourself stretching out your arms as far as possible to read. Then suddenly your arms are not long enough and you become frustrated because you can no longer read clearly.
If you have been a contact lens wearer for the past few years you will surely seek out a contact lens solution option instead of the usual pair of half eyes. This is when being well informed can be important. There are several options for you to consider. These include monovision, adapted monovision and multifocal lenses. Monovision is a fitting practice that uses vision principles normally used by the human brain when coordinating vision. The brain works with the principal that one of our eyes functions as our distance vision instrument while the other eye functions as the near vision and/or reading instrument. In reality neither handles that particular category of vision alone but weighs its functionality mostly on distance or near vision. All other vision, or fields of focus, is handled in varying degrees by both eyes, and when used together, or stereoscopically, the net result is excellent vision.
When considering contact lenses as a solution to presbyopia eye doctors prescribe one lens with a distance correction in one eye and another lens prescribed for reading in the other eye. Once again, stereoscopically the net result does provide for good visual acuity. However when lighting decreases as one may experience in a poorly lit room, a romantic restaurant setting or while driving at night, certain limitations of the monovision method will become apparent. In low light settings the pupil dialates to collect as much light as possible. In doing so each of the eyes will perform better for distance or for near vision. Intermediate vision diminishes enough to result in an effective loss of depth of field and contrast. Some patients can adapt to this but others elect to limit their wear of monovision based lens solutions to day light conditions.
Adapted monovision is a fitting method used by eye doctors who fit multifocal lenses but on the principle of classic monovision. By doing so they attempt to optimize upon the optical designs of the multifocal lens to maximize on the reading or distance vision that can be attained by the lens fit. The intermediate vision is guaranteed by the engineering design of the intermediate optical zone in each of the lenses on the respective eye. So in essence the eye doctor is optimizing the lens design characteristics to their fullest. No loss of contrast or depth of field is experienced with this method.
Multifocal lenses fitted in the classic method simply get fitted according to the prescription power requirement of each eye. The reading vision is in the center of the lens and various other fields of vision extending to the distance vision are achieved by way of the different concentric circles of powers within the lens design from the center out to the periphery of the zone of optics. No loss of contrast or depth of field is experienced with this method.
In all cases however it is your eye doctor who can best assess the lens type and fit that would work best for you. Ask your eye doctor if any of the above options will work for you.