Have you noticed that recently you have been uncomfortable reading Whatsapp messages on your phone?

Not just mobile, but has it been challenging to quickly and efficiently read newspapers as well as magazines?

And to be able to read the text and smaller fonts, do you often hold your phone or paper farther away at an arm’s distance from your face and squint your eyes?

If yes, you may be experiencing Presbyopia.

Presbyopia is a Greek medical term which means “Old Eyes”.

Presbyopia is a natural ageing process of the eye which both women and men experience.In gujarati presbyopia is also known as “Betala”.

It is an eye disorder wherein there is a gradual loss of the eye’s ability to focus on near objects.

Basically, in this condition, the eye lenses lose their flexibility.

But before you feel stressed about one more ageing issue, kindly remember that loss of clear, up-close vision happens to every human eventually.

This isn’t a rare and distinctive condition, but everyone develops Presbyopia in their 40s.

In fact, you must have observed the symptoms but neglected them too! But remember, it isn’t a disease, and the best part is that you can correct Presbyopia with Ranchhodrai’s specialist eye hospital in Ahmedabad.

However, before getting a reliable Presbyopia treatment in Ahmedabad, let us understand its root causes, symptoms and risk factors.

1. Difficulty to focus on closer objects

2. Eyestrain

3. Headaches from doing close work

4. Blurred vision

5. Tendency to hold objects farther away and sqeeze eyes to read

6. Need a brighter lighting while doing close work

7. Feeling fatigued while doing close work

8. Eye trouble or strain when the lighting is dim

A clear lens is seated inside the eye behind the coloured iris.

The lens works together with the Cornea to bend and change shape to focus light onto the retina. This allows you to see.

When we are young, the lens is flexible enough to shift and change shape, enabling us to focus on near or distant objects easily.

However, with age, the lens losses its flexibility and stiffens. Therefore, constricting the ability to focus on closer images.

With the hardening of the lens, the eye loses its ability to focus light on the retina, making it difficult to see!

The primary risk factor for Presbyopia is Age.However, you can develop this condition before the age of 40 because of certain drugs, medicines or underlying health issues. In such a case, it is called Premature Presbyopia, and the risk factors for it are:

1. Diabetes, anaemia or cardiovascular disease

2. History of the head or eye injury or trauma

3. Farsightedness which is a condition where you have great difficulty in seeing objects nearby than those which are far

4. Consumption of alcohol and drugs or indulging in harmful activities such as smoking

Although there is no solution to prevent ageing as it is a natural occurrence. You can take several measures to boost your eye health. A good and healthy eye will reduce the impact of Presbyopia. Tips for eye health are:

1. Ensure to have adequate lighting while doing your work. This reduces eyestrain and pressure.

2. Keep track of Presbyopia by writing the actual occurrence of a symptom at what age.

3. Annual Eye health check-ups. You must connect with experts at Ranchhodrai Eye Hospital in Ahmedabad and routinely get your eyes examined. This will help quickly detect the signs of Presbyopia or any other eye issue.

4. Stop smoking and limit your alcohol consumption.

5. Carry sunglasses whenever you are in the sun.

6. Add eye-friendly and nutritious food which will help protect your eye health. Some healthy food options are Carrots, gooseberry, leafy vegetables and citrus fruits.

Presbyopia can be diagnosed through a detailed eye examination at the Ranchhodrai eye hospital in Ahmedabad.

Our expert doctors will check uncorrected and corrected near and distance visual acuity testing that allows for evaluation of a patients’ refractive error as well as their functional capacity at near distances.

Uncorrected or under-corrected myopes will typically have less difficulty with near vision while the difficulties will be exacerbated in patients with uncorrected hyperopia.

Refraction will provide a baseline distance correction to which the near value will be added to provide optical correction for presbyopia.

Near lens prescription can be determined by adding plus power over the distance correction until clear near vision is achieved.

Doctors performs this test monocularly so that it will yield a perfect refraction by eliminating variation caused by convergence accommodation.

If presbyopia is your only vision problem (you do not have nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism), reading glasses may be all you need.

Reading glasses(Betala na chasma in Ahmedabad) help correct close-up vision problems by bending (refracting) light before it enters your eye.

The specific power of reading glasses that you need should be determined by an eye examination with expert doctor.

Bifocals, trifocals or progressive Lenses

If you already wear eyeglasses for other vision problems, now you might need bifocals, or progressive lenses.

• Bifocals correct for close-up and far vision. These spectacles have 2 different types of focus with a noticeable line between them. The upper portion is for farther distances, while the lower one is for closer work.

• Progressive lenses correct vision like bifocals . But instead of a line that divides each refractive area, refraction changes gradually in the lens from top to bottom. These lenses do not have a differentiating line.

Contact lenses

Some people prefer to wear contact lenses rather than eyeglasses. There are two types of contact lenses that help presbyopia:

• Monovision contacts. These correct one eye for distance vision and the other for close-up vision. You need to adapt to monovision lenses and train your brain to see this way. You may find you lose your ability to judge something’s distance or speed with monovision lenses.

• Multifocal contacts. These lenses have several rings or zones set at different powers. With this design, you are actually using both near and far vision at the same time. However, your brain learns to automatically select the right focus for what you want to see. You may find that using a multifocal lens makes your vision less sharp than when using a monofocal lens.

If you do not want to get into the trouble of wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses, the eye specialists at Ranchhodrai Eye Hospital can help you with an advanced and reliable Presbyopia Correcting Surgery in Ahmedabad/Presbiopic Lens Exchange in Ahmedabad.

Thanks to technological innovations, today one of the most sought Presbyopia treatment is through Presbyopia correcting cataract surgery in Ahmedabad with implantation of multifocal IOLs.

Presbyopic Lens Exchange(PRELEX)

What is Prelex surgery?

PRELEX, or presbyopic lens exchange, is a type of vision correction surgery that reduces the need to rely on glasses for near and/or distance vision.

It is a type of refractive lens exchange (RLE) that can restore normal vision By replacing the natural lens of the eye with a Multifocal intraocular lens.

Refractive lens exchange surgery is simply cataract surgery with intraocular lens (IOL) placement prior to the formation of a visually-significant cataract. This option corrects the refractive error as well as eliminates the formation of cataract in the future.