Can LASIK or PRK correct Presbyopia?
If you are over 40 you may notice that either your reading vision is changing or that your arms are not long enough! If this sounds familiar you may have a condition known as presbyopia. Presbyopia is a condition of the eye where farsightedness is caused by the loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, occurring most typically in middle age. LASIK and PRK are a terrific procedure to treat this condition if you are open to trying monovision. Monovision is a procedure that allows for blended vision where one eye is fully corrected to treat your distance vision, while the other eye is partially treated for your near vision. It sounds odd to patients at first but when they open both eyes and they experience distance and near vision where the brain naturally adapts for them.
It has been our experience that about half of all people who try monovision enjoy the results. It is recommended by Dr. Holzman that patients demonstrate good distance vision in one eye and good near vision in the other eye through a contact lens trial period. Patients that tolerate this monovision trial find little disturbance in their distance vision. Those that do find a disparity in images between the two eyes are generally not going to be good candidates for monovision. If an individual tolerates monovision, it is encouraged to try it with LASIK or PRK to correct both visual needs. A monovision trial can be easily demonstrated in your LASIK or PRK preoperative evaluation.
