It’s been said that 60 is the new 40. But unfortunately, a similar statement cannot be made about 40 year olds—your eyes in particular will be a constant reminder of your true numeric age starting at around 40 when you’re likely to start recognizing the effects of presbyopia.
But don’t worry. Having presbyopia doesn’t mean you’re about to morph into your parents. Today’s technology can mask the effects of aging on your eyes so you can overcome the effects of getting older without looking older.
What Is Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is a natural part of the aging process in which the crystalline lens inside your eye becomes less flexible. The result: Your eyes will likely begin to lose the ability to focus on objects up close. If reading and other near tasks are starting to strain your eyes, particularly in low light, presbyopia is likely to blame.
The effects of aging on your vision are inevitable. During the first two decades of life, the natural lenses behind your corneas, called the crystalline lenses, are able to flatten and bend to focus light rays on the retina in a way that makes good vision possible.1 However, this ability to accommodate begins to decrease in your 40’s, typically bottoming out by age 50.2
Presbyopia is Manageable
Like most other vision correction problems, presbyopia is routinely managed with glasses and contact lenses.
If you wear glasses already, your doctor may put you in a different type of lens called a progressive. This will spare you the inconvenience of switching between your regular glasses and reading glasses.
If you’re a contact lens wearer, a single pair of contacts can address your near and distance needs. In previous generations, there was only one way to achieve this: You’d be prescribed a prescription for near vision in one eye and a lens for distance vision in the other. Or you would have been prescribed a pair of distance contact lenses, and a pair of reading spectacles would need to be worn over the top of these for close work. This was called monovision. Monovision is still prescribed today, but for some contact lens wearers it’s not optimal because it prevents your two eyes from working as well together and may lead to problems such as reduced vision performance and depth perception. A more recent option is multifocal contact lenses, which contain multiple zones of vision correction instead of just one. This allows both your eyes to work together, allowing you to see things both up-close and at a distance with just one contact lens prescription.
Celebrate Freedom in Your Forties
There used to be very few multifocal contact lens options, but today you’re no longer restricted by limitations like replacement schedule preference, material preference, or even conditions like astigmatism.
CooperVision offers a diverse range of options, designed to meet your individual vision requirements. You can even get daily disposable multifocal contact lenses. For example, clariti® 1 day multifocal, is a silicone hydrogel, daily disposable contact lens. Silicone hydrogel is a healthy, soft contact lens material.
Whatever option you choose, remember this: You’re only 40 once, so don’t wait until you’re 60 to appreciate what it feels like to be 20 years younger.
* With higher oxygen permeability than hydrogel materials, silicone hydrogel contact lenses minimize or eliminate hypoxia-related signs and symptoms during lens wear.
1 Anderson HA et al. Minus-Lens-Stimulated Accommodative Amplitude Decreases Sigmoidally with Age: A study of Objectively Measured Accommodative Amplitudes from Age 3. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. July 2008 vol. 49 no. 7 2919-2916
2 Croft MA, Glasser A, Kaufman PL. Accommodation and presbyopia. Int Ophthalmol Clin. 2001 Spring;41(2):33-46.