Hyperopia
You experience blurred near vision and have visual strain at the end of the day? Maybe you have hyperopia. Laser or implants eye surgery can help you gain a clear vision without glasses.
What’s hyperopia/long-sightedness?
Long-sightedness (also known as hyperopia) is a common eye condition that can be hard to detect. It makes close objects appear blurry, or you might be able to focus clearly but get tired eyes or headaches. For people with significant long-sightedness, vision can be blurry for things in the distance as well. 15% of the French population suffers from hyperopia.
What causes long-sightedness/hyperopia?
To see clearly, light rays must travel through the front of the eye (the cornea and lens). The cornea and lens work together to bend the light so it lands on the back layer of the eye, called the retina. The retina then sends a signal to your brain that allows you to see. Long-sightedness (hyperopia) affects your ability to focus on near objects. It is a refractive error caused by an imperfection in the eye.
It happens when:
- The eyeball is shorter than normal
- The cornea is less curved than normal
- The lens is thinner than normal
When any of these imperfections occur, it changes the focusing point of the eye so that light rays focus behind your retina, instead of onto it. This makes close-up objects look blurry. Distance objects still appear clear because they don’t need as much focusing power, so they focus on your retina properly.
A hyperopic patient spontaneously uses his/her accommodative effort, crystalline lens’s converging power to overcome the circumstances. By birth most human beings are hyperopic, yet they do not experience blurry vision. With mild far-sightedness, most children see clearly near and far. As they get older, the eye grows and becomes longer, and mild far-sightedness is reduced or eliminated (then the eye may become emmetropic or even myopic). Long-sightedness/hyperopia is believed to be an inherited condition.
Are there different kinds of long-sightedness/hyperopia?
We can describe hyperopia according to its degree of severity:
- Mild hyperopia: 0 to +2
- Diopters Moderate hyperopia: +2 to +6 diopters
- Severe hyperopia: higher than +6 diopters
There are three types of hyperopia:
- Axial hyperopia:
it is very common. In this condition, the total refractive power of eye is normal, but there is axial shortening of eyeball. - Index hyperopia:
It is due to cortical sclerosis. Index hyperopia occurs due to change in refractive index with age. It can be occurred in the diabetic patient. - Curvatural hyperopia:
In this condition, curvature of the cornea becomes flatter than the normal, resulting in change in refractive power of the eye.
What are the symptoms of hyperopia/long-sightedness?
Common signs of hyperopia include difficulty concentrating and maintaining a clear focus on near objects, eye strain, fatigue and/or headaches after close work, aching or burning eyes, and irritability or nervousness after sustained concentration.
How is long-sightedness diagnosed?
Diagnosing long-sightedness (hyperopia) involves a comprehensive eye examination. The doctor or optometrist will use a standard vision test where they’ll ask you to read letters on a chart placed at the other end of the room. Other tests include: Slit lamp examination Refraction Visual field Visual acuity tests Examination of the retina
How is long-sightedness/hyperopia corrected?
Long-sightedness is easily corrected with eyeglasses (with convex lenses) or contact lenses. They work by refocusing light on the retina in the back of your eye so that you can see clearly. If the patient is suitable and doesn’t want to wear glasses any more, refractive surgery is a great solution.
What are the different techniques to treat long-sightedness/hyperopia?
We can treat hyperopia as easily as myopia, regardless of your age, the severity of the hyperopia or any associated visual defect such as astigmatism and/or presbyopia. Laser eye surgery can treat hyperopia up to 10 diopters. For more severe hyperopia (over 8 diopters), implantable lenses are more suitable. We can also use implantable lenses to treat hyperopia of 1 to 10 diopters, depending on the condition of your natural lens.