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Hyperopia astigmatism, or farsightedness, is an eye condition in which people see distant objects clearly, but close objects do not come into proper focus.
Farsightedness occurs if your eyeball is too short or the cornea has too little curvature, so light entering your eye is not focused correctly.
People with farsightedness can temporarily correct it with glasses or contact lenses.
For a more permanent solution, laser eye surgeons can change the shape of the front part of the eye to cure farsightedness.
Apart from being a vision problem, farsightedness can result in eyestrain.
If you are farsighted, your eyes have trouble seeing objects up close and need to work harder to do so. This effort causes eye strain. Sometimes, your symptoms will be a result of the farsightedness and the eye strain that farsightedness induces.
Farsightedness symptoms include:
Blurry vision for words or objects up close
Squinting to see better
An aching or burning sensation around your eyes
A headache after reading or other tasks that require you to focus on something close
Because so much of what we do is up close, you may find you depend on glasses for nearly everything.
Causes of farsightedness
Farsightedness (the medical term is hyperopia astigmatism) happens when your eyeball is slightly shorter than usual, or your cornea is flatter than required for clear vision.
Farsighted people can see things that are far away (e.g. people’s faces in the distance), but find things that are close-up blurry (like the text on your mobile’s screen).
Nearsightedness (the medical term is myopia), in contrast, means that light focuses behind the retina, and close objects can appear blurry.
In younger people, many farsighted eyes can self-focus by utilising the ‘zoom’ intended for reading to compensate for the blurring. As the eye ages, however, this ‘zoom’ gets weaker, so near vision becomes blurred.
Later in life, distance vision becomes blurred as well. That means that farsighted people often require reading glasses before their 40s, and then require both reading and distance glasses (or bifocals) from their 40s or 50s and onwards.
As with nearsightedness, laser eye surgery can correct farsightedness by changing the shape of the cornea. When we reshape the cornea, we can match the cornea’s focusing power to the length of the eye. The image above illustrates where the light focuses in normal vision and in a farsighted eye.
If you have a flat cornea you will be farsighted. If your eyeball is shorter than average, you will be farsighted. Both conditions cause light to focus beyond your retina instead of on your retina.
Farsightedness can be hereditary, so you’re more likely to be farsighted if your parents were farsighted.
Farsightedness examination in Toronto
Despite it being obvious they need glasses or contact lenses, many people don’t know whether they are farsighted or nearsighted.
An eye doctor or eye surgeon can conduct an eye examination to determine if you’re farsighted.
First, the eye doctor or surgeon will check as you read letters on an eye chart simulating different distances.
Then the eye doctor or surgeon will ask you to look through a variety of lenses to correct your vision, progressively making close objects appear more clearly.
Farsightedness treatment in Toronto
Laser eye surgery for farsightedness is in its second generation. Depending on factors like corneal thickness, the severity of prescription and lifestyle, eye surgeons typically recommend either LASIK or PRK :
Corrective lenses or surgery are options to help people with farsightedness see better
Does farsightedness improve with age?
It depends on the level of farsightedness and age. The natural lens inside of our eye is flexible in our younger years and for people with farsightedness, they may be able to flex their lens in order to see most distances without corrective lenses. As people approach their 30s and 40s and the natural lens loses its flexibility, they may start to depend on corrective lenses for near, and some require it for distance to see things more clearly as well.
Do you need glasses for farsightedness?
It depends on the level of farsightedness and age. If you find your vision is blurry and your doctor determines that you have farsightedness, corrective lenses may be prescribed to help you see better. Refractive surgery is also an option for adult patients who wants to see better without depending on their corrective lenses as much
Is farsightedness genetic?
Partly, yes. It depends on a number of complex factors interacting, including genetics and environment
Dear Dr. Kranemann, Many thanks in the nice, smooth and trouble free cataract surgery you carried out on both my eyes at Clearview Institute. I would like also to extend my thanks to all the staff of clearview. They are efficient, kind hearted and very helpful.J.T.
Dr. Kranemann is exceptionally intelligent and experienced. He is passionate about achieving perfect results for his patients, and proved it by correcting my father’s vision perfectly. We are very happy and grateful and highly recommend Dr. Kranemann.B.A.
Had the new vision correction procedure SMILE. WOW is all I can say. Life without glasses is amazing. Great surgeon and medical staff. Will refer his expertise on to family and friends.D.C.
