May 21, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by Vance Thompson Vision.

Imagine that you’re sitting down and are about to dive into that new book you’ve been dying to read. Paperback, hardcover, Kindle, no matter your preference, nothing can cover up that sinking feeling you get when you open to Page 1 and notice the words look fuzzier than usual. You squint your eyes in an effort to gain some clarity, but the only thing that’s clear is you’re having issues with your reading vision.

As we enter middle-age, it’s common for adults to experience challenges seeing clearly at close distances, especially when reading or working at a computer. In the medical world, this is referred to as presbyopia. The term is a combination of two Greek words: “presby” meaning “old” and “opia” meaning “vision.” It’s very normal, and it happens to everyone eventually.

Over the years, advanced corrections for presbyopia – such as glasses, contact lenses and monovision surgery – have helped, but, according to Dr. Vance Thompson, founder and ophthalmologist at Vance Thompson Vision, those solutions “weren’t really getting to the issue.”

According to Thompson, our eyes see and adjust well in our early years  thanks to the flexibility of the eye’s natural lens, which rests behind our pupils and grants us our reading vision. Think of reading vision like a camera lens; the lens is responsible for focusing and adjusting our eyes to see things near and far. As we age, that natural lens stiffens, which causes us to lose the ability to zoom in.

“We start to lose that reading vision in our 40s,” Thompson said. “That’s when people know they might only need reading glasses. For people who already wear glasses, they may need readers in their glasses, and those are what we call bifocals.

“Thanks to advances in technology, we have implants that will provide people with good distance, computer and near vision,” Thompson said.

The procedure for these implants is called a refractive lens exchange. RLE is a medical surgery that involves replacing your eye’s natural lenses with an artificial intraocular lens customized to the patient’s lifestyle. The exchange is performed to correct vision and reduce dependence on bifocals and readers. The procedure takes approximately 15 minutes to perform on each eye.

The RLE procedure is the same as cataract surgery; however, the eye’s natural lens is still clear when RLE occurs, not clouded by cataracts.

In fact, RLE prevents the need for cataract surgery later in life.

“Since the eye’s natural lens is where cataracts develop, patients who have RLE will never develop cataracts,” Thompson said.

Research and development for improving reading vision goes as far back as the 1970s, and Thompson said it has seen a huge uptick in recent years because of the reliance on computers and smartphones. For more than 30 years, Vance Thompson Vision has played a pivotal role in performing FDA-monitored studies on RLE, which resulted in high patient satisfaction.

For years, patients’ only options for RLE were implants designed to correct either near or far vision, but these new implants allow people to see at all distances. RLE patients now can choose vision that fits their lifestyle and accommodates all of their activities.

“Once a person gets these new implants, they don’t gradually deteriorate like their natural vision,” Thompson said.

“These advanced lens implants will give someone the reading range of a 32-year-old for the rest of their life.”

If you are worried about or experience “old vision,” thanks to RLE, the solution is clear.

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If you’re curious about correcting your reading vision, learn more through a consultation at Vance Thompson Vision. To schedule, call us at 605-361-EYES (3937), or fill out our contact form.