How Is Lasik Done For Nearsighted Presbyopes?

Everyone at some point experiences presbyopia or the loss of reading vision. But not everyone experiences presbyopia the same way. In fact, there are some people who don’t lose their up close vision with presbyopia!! These people are the ones that have been nearsighted their whole life.

Individuals with a mild to moderate amount of nearsighted vision may not notice much of a difference as they go through presbyopia. They still need glasses to see off in the distance but because they are nearsighted they can see just fine up close. Instead, gradually they notice that with their glasses on, it becomes harder to see up close. But no issue, typically they compensate by just looking underneath the glasses whenever they want to read. Those that wear contact lenses don’t have that luxury and have to adjust similar to how the rest of us adjust to presbyopia.

So where does lasik enter the picture? The classic way of doing lasik is to correct both eyes for distance. This works well for many many people. But guess what! For someone nearsighted and going through presbyopia, correcting both eyes can be a mistake! Whereas before they can read just fine without glasses, afterwards with both eyes corrected for the distance they will need reading glasses! Yuck!

This is where mini-monovision or blended vision enters the picture. And in fact, some patients may only even need one eye done (corrected for distance). This solution not only keeps the reading vision intact, but also sharpens things up for distance vision! An optimal way to eliminate glasses!

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