Can myopia and presbyopia be offset? Let's see what the ophthalmologist says!

“People with myopia will not get presbyopia!”

"If you have presbyopia, you can get rid of myopia!"

No way! No way!

It’s 2021 already, there are still people who believe this kind of thing!

There are no two people in the world who are exactly the same.

But there are problems that everyone will encounter.

——Presbyopia

The widely circulated "Myopia without presbyopia"

It is a misunderstanding of the general public who do not understand the relevant knowledge.

Today I’m here to share with you some useful information!

Myopia is mainly caused by visual fatigue, improper use of eyes and heredity, including refractive myopia and axial myopia. The former is caused by excessive curvature of cornea or lens, and the latter is caused by the axial length of eye exceeding the normal range. The final result is that the incident light cannot be accurately focused on the retina, but focuses on the position slightly in front of the retina.

Presbyopia is a physiological phenomenon that occurs with age. When we are young, the elasticity and accommodation ability of the lens are normal, so when the incident light passes through the cornea and lens, it can stretch and retract freely, so we can see objects near and far clearly. However, as we age, the lens hardens, its elasticity decreases, and the ciliary muscle contraction function also decreases, resulting in a decrease in the ability to accommodate objects when seeing, and it is no longer so clear when looking at close objects.

The two are completely different in pathology, and there is no problem that only one can exist. Therefore, friends who hope to use myopia to offset presbyopia may be disappointed. It is not the case that two negatives equal a positive. Instead, you need to wear two pairs of glasses. So what will happen when myopia collides with presbyopia?

# The encounter between myopia and presbyopia is divided into 3 stages#

# Myopia + Early stage of presbyopia#

When myopic friends first develop presbyopia symptoms, they often cannot see close objects for a long time and their eyes get tired easily because of insufficient eye accommodation. At this time, in order to achieve comfort when seeing both near and far objects, the myopia degree is often reduced during eye examination to meet the needs of the eyes when using near objects; the disadvantage is that the distance vision will be reduced due to insufficient degree when seeing far objects.

# Myopia + presbyopia progression#

As myopic people get older, when the accommodative power of the eyes decreases to almost "0", the eyes become a fixed-focus lens. They still need to wear myopic glasses to see far away (the degree may be the same as when they were young or slightly lower), but it is often clearer and more comfortable to take off the glasses to see near. At this stage, patients usually gradually get used to taking off the glasses for near vision and putting them on again for far vision, but they will feel a little awkward.

# High myopia + presbyopia#

When people with high myopia (>600 degrees) first develop presbyopia symptoms, they usually choose to reduce the degree of glasses to take care of both near and far vision. However, as the eye's ability to adjust further decreases, they usually have to switch between two pairs of glasses with different degrees for near and far vision. Some even need to switch between three or more pairs of glasses with different degrees for long-distance vision (such as driving), medium-distance vision (such as daily socializing or using the computer), and close-distance vision (such as reading or using a mobile phone), which is quite troublesome.

Many people choose progressive multifocal glasses to solve some of their eye problems, but they don’t know that the degree of presbyopia will continue to change with age. The cost of replacing glasses every year is considerable, and there are many discomforts in using them.

Most patients with myopia and presbyopia do not know how to take the initiative to seek medical treatment. They generally choose not to wear reading glasses or wear them arbitrarily without formal medical optometry. This wrong way leads to long-term visual fatigue, accelerates lens aging, and causes vision damage or other eye diseases. Dr. Zhou Li, deputy chief physician of the Cataract and Presbyopia Department of Aier Eye Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University, said: "In fact, myopia and presbyopia can be treated with active surgical intervention to improve visual quality!"

Dr. Zhou Li said that in her daily consultations, there are often a group of elderly patients with severe myopia who were unable to choose surgery to correct their vision when they were young. As they age, they have to endure the inconvenience of daily life, and on the other hand, they are hesitant about whether to improve their visual quality through surgery.

In this regard, Dr. Zhou Li reminded that no matter whether it is high myopia, astigmatism or presbyopia, the cataract and presbyopia specialists in the hospital can provide customized correction solutions. For example, the "Huanjing" surgery integrates the multifunctional artificial lens with femtosecond laser cataract correction, solving myopia, astigmatism, presbyopia and other problems at the same time, greatly improving the visual quality and quality of life.