Why do I need glasses?

When your eye doctor tells you that you require corrective lenses, there could be varied reasons. The most common are:

Myopia (nearsightedness)

You can see clearly to read, but as objects become farther away, they appear blurry. You see the world as an Impressionist painting. Myopia is corrected by using a ‘minus’ lens (concave lens) of the correct power.

Hyperopia (farsightedness)

You can see clearly at distances, but objects nearby are difficult to focus upon. This is corrected by using a ‘plus’ lens (convex lens) of the correct power.

Presbyopia

is the gradual loss of your eyes’ ability to focus on nearby objects. It is a natural, often annoying part of aging. Presbyopia usually becomes noticeable in the early to mid-40s and continues to worsen until around age 65.

Symptoms include:

  • A tendency to hold reading material farther away to make the letters clearer
  • Blurred vision at normal reading distance
  • Eyestrain or headaches after reading or doing close-up work.

Astigmatism (with or without any of the previous conditions)

is a common and generally treatable imperfection in the curvature of your eye that causes blurred distance and near vision. Astigmatism occurs when either the front surface of your eye (cornea) or the lens, inside your eye, has mismatched curves. This condition is corrected by adding a “cylinder” at a particular direction of orientation, to your regular (spherical) corrective lens.