Eye Care Eye Care Basics

Lose Your Reading Glasses, Permanently

Many men and women resist buying their first pair of reading glasses. To them, reading glasses—no matter how stylish—are irrefutable proof that the aging process is marching on. Fortunately, new alternatives are available to those who don't like the thought of fishing glasses out of their bag or their pocket each time they need to read a menu.

Below, Penny A. Asbell, MD, a professor of ophthalmology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, discusses why people lose their ability to read close-up—a condition called presbyopia—and reviews their vision options.

Why does our vision change as we age?
Inside the eye is a lens, and that lens actually changes shape. When we are young and we're looking into the distance and then close-up, the lens changes shape so that we can focus and continue to have good vision. What happens as we age is that lens gets a little stiffer, and it doesn't change shape as easily. That is when you start reaching for reading glasses, because you need the extra power that your own lens can't provide anymore. We call that presbyopia, when you can no longer see close-up.

Who ends up needing reading glasses?
Everybody ends up needing reading glasses. This is universal. There are people who had great vision their whole life. They said, "I'm eagle eyes. I can see everything far away." Now they're in their 40s, and they're having trouble reading, and it's really disturbing to them.

When does presbyopia begin?
Typically, you first become symptomatic in your 40s, requiring a low-plus lens, usually a +1. And then it moves up to about a +3. So as we age we end up needing a little bit more over time.

What kind of glasses are available?
They now sell reading glasses in the drugstore. Those work fine for many people. And for people who already need corrective lens for distance, there are glasses called progressives that have a different power on the top for distance, and the bottom power has reading power. They look like normal glasses, but they actually give you good distance vision and good reading vision. Bifocals are the glasses where you actually can see the line in the glass. Those work terrifically but in our youth-oriented culture, people don't like to wear glasses that make them look old, so to speak.

And now there are contact lenses that act like bifocals that give you distance and near vision, and some patients do very well with those.

What is monovision?
Monovision is where you correct one eye for distance and the other eye for reading. Sometimes they call it blended vision because you actually continue to use both eyes together. It is just that one eye is doing more of the distance vision, the other one is doing more of the reading vision.

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