EVERYTHING
YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WHY YOU NEED READING GLASSES:
|
The
need to begin wearing reading glasses regularly when reaching age 35 -
40 is due to presbyopia (pres-be-O-pe-uh), the medical term
for a condition that mimics farsightedness. It's virtually a universal
condition, and unfortunately, no refractive surgical procedures can currently
correct presbyopia.
In
fact, middle aged colonial Americans with presbyopia imported spectacles
from Europe. Spectacles were mainly for the affluent and literate colonists,
who required a valuable and treasured appliance, and they cost as much
as $200 in the early 1700's. Benjamin Franklin had presbyopia. Perhaps
that is why he is identified by his spectacles, and later the bifocals
he invented.]
Here
is a technical explanation of presbyopia:
When
your eye focuses on a distant object, the ciliary muscle surrounding the
lens relaxes; the lens thins and flattens. As you focus at close range,
the ciliary muscle contracts. The curvature of the lens is increased, and
the lens thickens. At about age 35, the problem of focusing becomes noticeably
symptomatic because your lenses will have thickened naturally, and they
will be harder and less pliable. The ciliary muscles in your eyes also
will have become weakened, will have lost tone and will no longer be able
to shape the lenses properly to focus on near objects. This is because
the image would be in focus behind, rather than on the retina, thus causing
blurring of close-range vision.
In
simple language, presbyopia is an inevitable adjunct to aging, and is due
to the natural stiffening of the lens in the eye, with the consequence
that your eyes are prevented from focusing on close objects. While you
still can see distant objects clearly, you cannot refocus on near objects.
Adding an extra lens in the form of reading glasses will serve to focus
close objects properly on your retina.
Reading
glasses are available without a prescription, and are intended as an aid
if you have blurred vision at close distances. However, they are not intended
to replace prescribed corrective eye wear, nor to replace professional
eye examinations and care.
Typically,
reading glasses can be safely, self-prescribed by you, the user, with the
help of a simple eye chart.
The
level of magnification in the lenses of reading glasses is called "diopter
strength". A very weak magnification would be found in reading glasses
with a diopter strength of 1.00. Reading glasses are often offered for
sale in diopter strengths that start with 1.50, and stronger lenses are
offered in diopter strengths that increase by a factor of .25 (e.g., 1.50;
1.75; 2.0; 2.25; 2.50; etc). Presbyopia is progressive, and therefore,
the strength of magnification in your reading glasses will probably have
to be increased every year or two. Moreover, it is not uncommon to need
a second pair of reading glasses with greater magnification for stressful
times, as stress can intensify the near vision blurring caused by presbyopia.
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