PRESBYOPIA

Although everyone is a unique inidividual, there are some recommendations we would make as general tips to suit every presbyopic patient. 

• Always have a pair of prescription reading glasses – When you have your eyes tested, you get a prescription for each eye. This prescription is then made up in lenses with the optical centre of the lens sitting exactly in front of the optical centre of the pupil, so it’s a perfect match. This will give you the sharpest and clearest vision. When you wear ready readers, firstly your prescription is not completely corrected and secondly the optical centres don’t match. This is why you should always have a pair of prescription glasses for when you are reading for long periods or concentrating at near for long periods. This will reduce eye strain. You can still have multiple pairs of ready readers as they can be quite practical in case you lose them, and have multiple pairs lying around the house but for eyes you should have a best pair of up to date prescription glasses
• Consider Enhanced Reading Lenses – As your prescription worsens, you may feel the need to get stronger reading glasses. We would recommend at this point considering the need for an enhanced reading lens which would give you more range to be able to see further away whilst having your reading glasss on. With reading only lenses, they give you a good enough working range when there is a small prescription, however as you get older, you typically need stronger lenses and this in turn reduces your working distance. Basically, you find you have to hold things closer and can’t see the computer as clearly. With an enhanced reading lens you get the best of both
• Move to Varifocals Earlier – The smaller your reading add, the easier it is to adapt to varifocals. When we say move to varifocals earlier, it simply means when you have a strong enough distance prescription we would recommend a varifocal for you. This is a far more practical lens for everyday life, even if you don’t wear glasses all the time
• Try Varifocal Contact Lenses – At Abra & Co. Opticians, we’re experts in Varifocal contact lens fitting. We have certain lenses that are simply not available to high street opticians and our optometrists have been specially trained to fit them for maximum success rate.