When You Have Reading Difficulties, Find A Qualified Optometrist For a Comprehensive Eye Exam. When the 40s call, no matter how much effort and money you spent to stay young and healthy, you may still find your eyesight being not as good as before. This is particularly more obvious when you read your newspaper or mobile phone. When you start experiencing a reading problem, you may wonder if it is because of lacking enough rest.
Reading Difficulties
But soon you know there is a true near blur and you start magnifying the small words, turning on the lights and read as far away as you can…until they still can’t solve your near blur. Is reading difficulties an eye disease? Will the near blur deteriorate or improve later?
Will normal aging cause difficulty in reading? What should I do to restore my near vision? There may be hundreds of doubts coming to your mind. It’s high time to know more about your change at near vision and how can you solve the reading difficulties.
Vision Test – A Simple Way To Test Your Near Vision
First, keep the following passage away from your eyes for around 40 cm with your glasses (if needed). Then, try to read the passage. If you find it difficult to focus and you can hardly recognise the words, you may probably having reading difficulties! You can also try out the new reading difficulties online test offer by SWISSCOAT
Presbyopia : An Inevitable Near Blur On Aging Eyes
Your reading problem is officially called presbyopia. According to the American Optometric Association, presbyopia is a natural age-related change on your eye and it is not regarded as an eye disease. During reading, a special group of eye muscles called ciliary muscles will contract and change the eye lens focus which allow you to read close.
However, ciliary muscles get weaker and lens grows thicker continuously since birth. These changes gradually decrease your eyes’ ability to focus and cause your reading problem when you enter your fourth decades of life. Also, your eyes are under greater stress when you read smaller, closer, and in a dimmer environment. When you avoid doing them, reading is slightly less difficult. People over 50s will 100% get presbyopia. This kind of near blur cannot be prevented and will not be recovered.
Therefore you don’t need to be over-panic about your normal aging-eye-related reading difficulties. At the same time you also don’t need to avoid reading to prevent further drop of your near vision because the near blur change is unstoppable.
Solving Your Reading Problem
Whenever you have questions about your eyes, seek your optometrist’s advice! Usually everybody’s eyes are different and they require different near vision corrections.
Optometrists will undergo a detailed eye exam to examine your reading vision and provide useful opinion about your reading difficulties. Therefore before buying ready-made reading glasses or borrowing your friend’s reading glasses to solve your near blur, make an appointment for an eye exam first! In the next passage, treatment options towards presbyopia will be discussed.
By Jeff Tang, Registered (Part I) Optometrist
Eyecare information by Swisscoat Vision Centre
Address : G/F Yuen Yick Building, 27-29 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Appointment :+852 3579 4763
Website : www.swisscoat.com