Presbyopia Correction

An advanced method of laser vision correction used for treating patients with age-related loss of near vision, also known as presbyopia. In Auckland, it is available exclusively at Auckland Eye.

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Laser Vision Correction Presbyopia Correction

Presbyopia is often referred to as 'the ageing eye condition' because it is a disorder that affects everyone during the natural ageing process. Presbyopia results in the inability to focus up close, a problem associated with refraction in the eye. Most people begin to notice the gradual effects of presbyopia sometime after age 40.

Presbyopia symptoms include:

A tendency to hold reading material further away to make the letters clearer
Blurred vision at normal reading distance
Eye strain or headaches after reading or doing close up work

What Causes Presbyopia?

With young eyes, the lens of the eye is soft and flexible, allowing the tiny muscles inside the eye to easily reshape the lens to focus on close and distant objects.

However, during the ageing process, the natural lens inside our eyes begins to gradually harden and become less flexible. As a result, the lens can’t change shape as easily and it is unable to bend light properly in order to focus it on the retina.

The ageing process also affects the muscle fibres around the lens making it harder for the eye to focus. The ineffective lens causes light to focus behind the retina, resulting in blurred vision when looking at objects up close.

Presbyopia Correction

Although presbyopia is an unavoidable age-related condition, fortunately, it can be easily diagnosed through a routine eye exam and there are various treatment options available to help restore near vision.

Non-surgical treatment options include eyeglasses and contact lenses. However, due to the fact that both eyeglasses and contact lens require ongoing maintenance, they are usually a temporary solution for patients with presbyopia. As a result, with the recent developments in ophthalmology, people are now opting for more permanent solutions through refractive (focus correcting) surgery for presbyopia.

Surgical Treatment Options

Refractive Lens Exchange (Lens Replacement Surgery)

Using Presbyopia Correcting Intraocular Lenses (IOL’s)

To correct the refractive error and restore near focus, refractive lens exchange replaces the ageing lens of the eye with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL). This procedure can be performed on one or both eyes and offers an effective solution to presbyopia.

Since refractive lens exchange uses the same technique as cataract surgery (where the eye’s natural lens is replaced with an artificial intraocular lens), this means that the chance of developing cataracts in the future is eliminated. Another advantage of lens replacement surgery is that due to the fact that multifocal IOLs are implanted inside the eye, they do not require any care or routine replacement like contact lenses do.

Although refractive lens exchange is a more invasive procedure compared to laser alternatives, it is usually best suited typically for patients over 50 with presbyopia or extreme farsightedness. There are a number of lens replacement options available, however, the two most common IOL’s used to correct presbyopia include:

Multifocal Lenses: A multifocal lens provides clear vision at several distances
Extended Depth of Field (EDoF) Lenses: These IOL’s spread focused light over a greater distance allowing patients to have a more continuous range of vision without the possibility of ‘gaps’ in the vision. They are also less likely to induce night vision haloes or starburst effects than Multifocal IOL’s.

Lens Replacement Surgery For Monovision/Blended Vision

Patients who have issues with both distance and near vision may greatly benefit from exploring monovision correction achieved with lens replacement surgery. Monovision is a type of correction where one eye is corrected for distance (typically the dominant eye), and the other eye is corrected for near vision, which works due to neuroadaptation.

Neuroadaptation is the process where your brain is able to comfortably process the distant and near images, to work together to see at all fields of vision. Overall, the images from both eyes are processed by your brain as one blended image.

Most people who have monovision find that they adjust within a matter of days and many can get rid of their glasses. However, since not every brain and person will accommodate to monovision, the patient will usually be required to trial monovision contacts or glasses before considering monovision refractive lens exchange surgery.

Laser Technology

PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision

PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision from Carl Zeiss transcends conventional monovision methods by offering clear sight at all distances: near, intermediate, and far. Better yet, virtually all patients will no longer require reading glasses.

PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision represents the next stage in eye care excellence. Similar to conventional monovision, the dominant eye is corrected for distance vision to almost plano (i.e. no refractive error, or what can be referred to as normal vision), whereas the non-dominant eye is corrected to be slightly myopic (i.e. nearsighted, or when distant images are blurred).

This micro-monovision strategy is then enhanced further by increasing the depth of field of each eye using a wavefront-optimised ablation profile to create a continuous refractive power gradient for the whole optical zone of the cornea. PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision is an absolutely individualised treatment plan based on the patients eye function. As a result, a customised fusion of the two images for near and distance vision is created for each patient – the so called Blend Zone.