Farsightedness

Author: Head of the EMC Ophthalmology Clinic, Ph.D. Raed Elias

If you can see distant objects well, but cannot focus on objects located nearby, it is most likely that farsightedness is involved in your case.

Hyperopia (hypermitropia) is a pathology in which the focus of the image of the object in question is in the plane behind the retina. Normally, the focus should be on the retina.

Hyperopia is observed in most children at birth (physiological hyperopia). As the child grows up and the body grows, farsightedness decreases and disappears over time. However, in some children, the defect may persist for life.

But it also happens that a person does not have a pathology in childhood, and it manifests itself in adulthood. This farsightedness is called acquired.

Causes of hyperopia

The inability to focus on objects located nearby is due to the reduced size of the eyeball.

Symptoms of hyperopia

In addition to the main feature, hypermitropia can have a number of distinctive symptoms:

• headache. Usually, with farsightedness, a headache occurs due to the tension of the eye muscles when trying to focus on an object nearby.;

• eye pain, burning sensation, worse in the evening;

• strabismus, in which one eye deviates inward.

If you have difficulty reading, working at a computer, or focusing on objects at a distance, contact your doctor to undergo a diagnosis and select the most effective method of vision correction.

Diagnosis of hyperopia

Diagnosis of hypermitropia begins with an eye examination and visual acuity check - visometry. To identify possible changes on the retina, the doctor performs ophthalmoscopy and biomicroscopy. To exclude retinal detachment and to assess the size of the lens, ultrasound is necessary.

Treatment of hyperopia in EMC

Since hyperopia disappears with age in most children, hypermitropia does not require correction, however, in certain cases it may still be necessary, for example, with a high degree of hyperopia or in the presence of the above symptoms.

The treatment of hyperopia in children consists in correct optical correction using glasses.

Depending on the age and if the child follows the necessary hygiene, contact lenses can be used for sports or in cases of a large difference between the refraction of the eyes.

The most reliable way to correct farsightedness is laser surgery. However, laser treatment is recommended for people over the age of 18-19.

At EMC, we use the most effective and safe laser therapy technique – Femto Lasik.

Before the correction, the patient undergoes an examination, after which the doctor appoints the day of the operation. The operation is performed on an outpatient basis. Anesthesia is not used. As a local anesthetic, eye drops are used, which the doctor instills into the patient before the operation.

Advantages of Femto Lasik technique

• No risks during laser correction. The process is fully computerized.

• The minimum time for the operation (no more than 10 minutes).

• Effectiveness. The patient notices the first improvements immediately after the operation. The maximum effect is noticeable the very next day.

• High resolution visual acuity. This allows you to maintain perfect vision at different degrees of illumination – at night and dusk, the sharpness of vision is preserved.

• The possibility of improving vision in patients who have previously been operated on using other laser correction methods.

• The opportunity to improve the eyesight of patients who have previously had cataract surgery.

Advantages of laser vision correction for hypermitropia in EMC

• An ophthalmologist performs surgery on an IntraLase femtosecond laser. It is paired with the VISX Star S4 excimer laser and the iDesign scanner. Such equipment allows you to restore vision even with combined pathology: for example, if hyperopia is combined with astigmatism.

• We have the only Abbot iDesign Advanced device in Russia that scans the eye and develops an individual formula for each patient. According to this formula, the laser corrects vision. The detailed results of the iDesign examination help the ophthalmologist to perform the most complex operations that were not previously possible.

• Laser operations are performed by the head of the EMC Ophthalmology Clinic, Raed Elias. The doctor has been in the profession for over 27 years. He has worked and interned in leading clinics in Europe. He has performed more than 9,000 laser surgeries, including Russia's first laser correction of age-related hyperopia.

• We improve vision with farsightedness up to plus 6, myopia up to minus 20 and astigmatism up to minus 6.