Patients Over 40

Contact lenses are not just for your people. Many people over 40 are successful and happy contact lens wearers. Presbyopia, the need for reading glasses, can be successfully corrected with properly fitted contact lenses.

Presbyopia occurs because of the gradual thickening and loss of flexibility of the lens of the eye as we age. Presbyopia causes us to hold books, magazines, newspapers, menus, and other reading material at arm’s length in order to focus properly. Without adequate vision correction, people often develop headaches, eye strain, or fatigue.

Contacts & Presbyopia

Distance Contact Lenses with Readers

One option is to wear contacts that correct only for distance, and use a pair of reading glasses whenever needed for near vision activities. This option provides the sharpest distance and near vision, but you will still need glasses whenever you are doing any close work.

Monovision Contact Lenses

Monovision is an alternative option, where one contact lens corrects for distance and the other corrects for near. This option is well accepted by many patients, but not by all. It can decrease depth perception slightly, and it does take a short period of adjustment. This option is good for people with astigmatism, and also for people who don’t normally need any distance correction.

Multifocal Contact Lenses

Multifocal contact lenses are a third option. Multifocal lenses can be fit in either RGP or soft contacts. They are also available for patients with astigmatism. These contacts focus on near, intermediate, and far objects at the same time. Your brain learns to select what part of the lens you should be using and tunes out the other part. There is a period of adjustment with multifocal contacts, but most patients find them to be a convenient alternative to wearing reading glasses.