There are several reasons for presbyopia correction. The number one reason is frustration. That’s the word that I hear time and time again in the clinic. It’s the on/off of the reading spectacles. The big patient group here is a patient who has never needed spectacles. People like me who were lucky enough to enjoy great distance vision in their twenties and thirties could enjoy that seamless range of focus and accommodation that gives us the ability to shift focus from distance to near and back out again in just under a second. So for patients like me, when the presbyopia hits, the distance vision remains excellent, so it’s all too easy to get out the house in a hurry to forget to pick up the reading specs and then arrive at work for that important meeting and find they can’t see anything close. They can’t read, or they can’t keep up with the paperwork.

If they do remember the specs, it’s a frustration with the on and off, on and off. If their on, they can see here, but they can’t read the facial expressions of people they having a meeting with. And then it’s the limitation of activities.  You might be someone who really enjoys golf and they have their distance vision, You can still see when you hit the ball, but you cannot read the score card. So again, you have to remember your reading specs, and it’s compromised their enjoyment of an important part of your life.

Musicians are another example. They can see the conductor but they can’t read music and then have to adjust with varifocals. And not everyone finds wearing varifocals easy. A lot of people wear specs to correct myopia for many years and then the presbyopia comes along and have to put various specs on in order to see up close as well as distance. They try to walk downstairs and everything comes up with a funny angle and they get seasick and optometrist have to counsel that patient and encourage them to adapt to it. It is a process of adaptation and not everyone can do. Some people really struggle and find they have to go to having two pairs of specs or even three pairs of specs. One for distance, one for reading music or the computer and another for reading.

Some patients will come to my clinic with that little collection of spectacles that they require in order to function. I think the key reasons that I see people are of frustration and the fact that they have started to compromise their quality of life.

It also makes people feel aged. I know people say we should not fight the ageing process but it’s affecting me now, and I’m starting to wear my own presbyopia it’s got a few years to run. But I already know I’m going to have something done about this, in fact, I am going to have PRESBYOND LASIK in order to restore that function. I don’t want to let go of the functions I have enjoyed and I don’t want to stop the other things I am enjoying and it is nice to feel young.