laser eye surgery

silkyuk9

im 46 and wear reading glasses as im long sighted. I can see reasonabily well at long distances but newspapaers and books are a no no. I think my reading glasses are around +1 as I can buy cheapo glasses at +1.5 from poundland.

Basically am i too old for surgery?

I would like not to have to wear glasses as my sight is fine but has a 'shimer' if you like when im not wearing reading glasses. I have not worn glasses all my life just from the age of around 43 but again only for reading small print such as books.

im not sure what im looking for and not really sure if you can post things regarding surgery but any help or advice at this stage would be a great help. mainly from people at my age who have had it done.

SailorSam

When you say you have a 'shimmer', might that be an indication that you need a Cataract operation.
Oh to old at 46. Im 61 i've had a couple of OPs and waiting another, probably before Christmas.

silkyuk9

SailorSam wrote: »

When you say you have a 'shimmer', might that be an indication that you need a Cataract operation.
Oh to old at 46. Im 61 i've had a couple of OPs and waiting another, probably before Christmas.

sorry I mean kind of blurry vision perfect when i put on my reading glasses. Not cataracts. my optician says its just my lense muscles that are not doing their job correctly anymore, an age thing

tidus

Lazer surgery isn't a particularly good solution for your problem, presbyopia. It works best for stable visual defects like myopia (short sightedness).

Think what your vision is like when you put on your reading glasses - you can read, but distance is blurry until you take then off. You can't take off lazer surgery therefore you can't permanently lazer a reading only correction onto your eyes.

There are some ways around this -for example you could have one eye lazered to be able to read, leaving it blurry for distance, and leave to other eye alone to do distance, which is called monovision.

The other issue is that your defect is currently not stable. Presbyopia progresses through the mid forties until the sixties, meaning that its going to get worse. You will need progressively stronger reading glasses so any lazer correction will only be suitable for a short time.

SailorSam

I think i'd be going to a different optician for a second opinion or even better ask them to refer you to the nearest eye hospital to do further tests.

tidus

SailorSam wrote: »

I think i'd be going to a different optician for a second opinion or even better ask them to refer you to the nearest eye hospital to do further tests.

The Optician was just trying to explain prebyopia.

If we sent everybody to hospital with normal, age related changes "just in case" everyboby over 45 would have to be refered. The original poster's symptoms are not suggestive of cataract.

silkyuk9

tidus wrote: »

Lazer surgery isn't a particularly good solution for your problem, presbyopia. It works best for stable visual defects like myopia (short sightedness).

Think what your vision is like when you put on your reading glasses - you can read, but distance is blurry until you take then off. You can't take off lazer surgery therefore you can't permanently lazer a reading only correction onto your eyes.

There are some ways around this -for example you could have one eye lazered to be able to read, leaving it blurry for distance, and leave to other eye alone to do distance, which is called monovision.

The other issue is that your defect is currently not stable. Presbyopia progresses through the mid forties until the sixties, meaning that its going to get worse. You will need progressively stronger reading glasses so any lazer correction will only be suitable for a short time.

This is exactly what my opician has told me. Its just a part of getting old. My eyes were perfect growing up then in my 40's just could not read a book for blurred writing, but my long vision is ok. I dont need to wear glasses for driving as I can see perfectly well, but some road signs can be a little blurry, and the speedo is blurry but I can still see writing perfectly well at distances such as number plates. I can read the eye chart ok at distance but the little letters at the bottom are getting harder to make out.

I dont wear glasses to watch the tv as I can see it perfectly well enough, but typing on a pc I need to wear them.

Well laser surgery has now gone out of my thoughts.

Kojak12

I would not discount it yet - it could give you excellent vision for a number of years which might be worth the cost. My friend is in her mid 40's and she just had it done for the first time and she is thrilled with the result. Another friend is nearly 60 and she just had her eyes relazered after nearly 20 years (she was one of the very first in the world to have it done).

Most of the large UK laser clinics do a free consultation. I, my husband, and 5 friends have all had it done and we have not been upsold. The consultant has been very clear about the different vision issues; lenses, muscles, stigmatism.... and what laser treatment can and can not fix. They have also given us honest advice about how long the effects of laser treatment will last and how likley it is we will get 20:20 vision at the end.

SuperHanz

Hi There,


I had laser eye surgery on 17th December. It's early days yet but I have just started writing a blog on my experience of LASEK surgery which may be helpful? I found that getting any detailed reviews/experiences of LASEK surgery patchy and not enough detail to put my mind at rest, hence the blog. It won't let me post the link so take the spaces out at the end after the full stop when you paste it in your browser.




therealbermudeztriangle.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-lasek-experience. html


Hope it helps.

C_Mababejive

I think laser surgery would be overkill for your situation. I would say dont do it, keep using the readers or if its really an issue,see a good independent optom with a view to having one contact lens to be used in one eye, biased toward reading. (monovision).

sillyvixen

tidus wrote: »

There are some ways around this -for example you could have one eye lazered to be able to read, leaving it blurry for distance, and leave to other eye alone to do distance, which is called monovision.

for anyone considering monovision lazer surgery, it is worth consaulting an optician to trial monvision contact lenses. while some find it the perfect solution to their reading problems others find it compromises their distance vision and find it quite disorientating. at least contact lenses would allow someone to experience how monovision would affect them, before making a permanent decision.

also with contact lenses it is easier to update your vision correction as your reading vision changes in the future.