Presbyopia (Greek word “presbys” meaning “old person”) is a condition of the eye where the ability to focus near object progressively diminish.

This is different from astigmatism, myopia (also known as nearsightedness) and hyperopia (also known as long sightedness), which are related to the shape and size of the eyeball. It is a not a disease or trauma of the eye but a nature process due to aging.

Presbyopia is generally believed to stem from a gradual loss of flexibility in the natural lens inside your eye.

The first symptoms are usually first noticed between the ages of 38 to 45 years old. Actually, the ability to focus on near objects declines throughout life, from ability to focus at 50 mm in a child to and leveling off to 1-2 meters at age 60.

The first symptoms most people notice are, difficulty reading fine print and their arms have become “too short” to hold reading material at a comfortable distance

Print seems to have less contrast and the eyes become easily fatigued when reading a book or computer screen. By holding reading material further away helps for many people. But eventually, reading correction in the form of reading glasses, bifocals, progressive lens are needed for close work.
However, nearsighted people can simply take their glasses off because they see best close-up.

A delayed onset of seeking correction for presbyopia has been found among those with small pupils. In particular, farmers and housewives seek correction later, whereas office workers and teachers seek eyesight correction earlier.
The treatment for presbyopia is very simple, but is entirely dependent on the individual’s age, lifestyle, occupation, and hobbies.

If the patient has good distance vision and only has difficulty seeing up close, reading glasses are usually the easiest solution. Another option is monovision: adjusting one eye for distance vision, and the fellow eye for reading vision. This can be done with contact lenses or permanently with refractive surgery.

Myopia (from Greek mean “Nearsighted) is a refractive error of the eye where light from distance object focus in front of the retina when accommodation** is relaxed.

**Accommodation is the eye’s way of increasing its ability sees clearly from far to close distance by changing the convexity of the crystalline lens

As the object move closer to the eye, the image that forms inside the eye will be shifting toward the retina. Therefore the person can sees clearer when the object is move closer to the eye.

Commonly myopia is due to elongated eyeball and steep cornea. Myopia is corrected using concave lenses which have a negative power, such as glasses, contact lenses. It can be corrected also by refractive surgery, such as LASIK.

Studies done in many countries has shown that the prevalence of myopia has increase and leading to growing concern about myopia-related complications.

Unfortunately, prevention of myopia remains unsolved. There are a lot of theories about what causes myopia. But, at this point of time, it’s not clear exactly what causes myopia, or what we can do about it.

However, differentiating the consequences of high (Myopia greater than -6 DS) and low myopia is essential, because high myopia tend to associate with macular degeneration, macular holes, retinal breaks and retinal detachment.

Myopia can be induced by metabolic changes in the body such as diabetes mellitus, cataract, cornea swelling and other ocular media disorder.

Beside that, we can also induce myopia our self. This myopia is common in young adults who have active accommodation, such as preparing for exam, or a change in occupation which require a lot of close work. This type of myopia is called Pseudo myopia and it is due to spasm of the ciliary muscle.

Most of the times, pseudo myopia is misdiagnose, and patient end up wearing short sighted glasses, which give more burden to the accommodation system.  Therefore, see a proper optometrist to seek advice on myopia.

Hyperopia (as known as farsightedness/ long sightedness) is a refractive error of the eye where light from a distant object focuses behind the retina.

Hyperopia is commonly related to a short eye and flat cornea.

A person with hyperopia is considered farsighted because they can generally see distance objects clearer than near. However, two people with the same degree of hyperopia may not see a far distant object the same, because of our accommodation (See diagram).

Normally, minor amounts of hyperopia are left uncorrected. However, people who are moderately or severely hyperopia may need to be corrected with convex lenses in eyeglasses or contact lenses. It may also be corrected by refractive surgery, such as LASIK.

People with a high degree of hyperopia may not experience blurred vision only, but may have other problems such as accommodative disorder, amblyopia (also known as lazy eye), and a squint.

Children who are severely hyperopia may have a higher risk for strabismus (crossed eyes) or amblyopia (lazy eye), therefore they should be examined and treated accordingly.

It is hard for a non medical technician to tell whether the person has hyperopia, even measuring hyperopia using machines is inaccurate.

However, hyperopia is often confused with presbyopia, another condition that frequently causes blurry near vision.

**Presbyopia is a condition of the eye where the ability to focus near objects diminish due to aging.

Though it is not uncommon for hyperopia to be associated with aging, getting older does not cause people to become hyperopic. Rather, the aging process hinders the eye’s focusing ability, which can sometimes make pre-existing hyperopia more evident.

Therefore, see a proper optometrist to seek advice on hyperopia.

Hyperopia (as known as farsightedness/ long sightedness) is a refractive error of the eye where light from a distant object focuses behind the retina.

Hyperopia is commonly related to a short eye and flat cornea.

A person with hyperopia is considered farsighted because they can generally see distance objects clearer than near. However, two people with the same degree of hyperopia may not see a far distant object the same, because of our accommodation (See diagram).

Normally, minor amounts of hyperopia are left uncorrected. However, people who are moderately or severely hyperopia may need to be corrected with convex lenses in eyeglasses or contact lenses. It may also be corrected by refractive surgery, such as LASIK.

People with a high degree of hyperopia may not experience blurred vision only, but may have other problems such as accommodative disorder, amblyopia (also known as lazy eye), and a squint.

Children who are severely hyperopia may have a higher risk for strabismus (crossed eyes) or amblyopia (lazy eye), therefore they should be examined and treated accordingly.

It is hard for a non medical technician to tell whether the person has hyperopia, even measuring hyperopia using machines is inaccurate.

However, hyperopia is often confused with presbyopia, another condition that frequently causes blurry near vision.

**Presbyopia is a condition of the eye where the ability to focus near objects diminish due to aging.

Though it is not uncommon for hyperopia to be associated with aging, getting older does not cause people to become hyperopic. Rather, the aging process hinders the eye’s focusing ability, which can sometimes make pre-existing hyperopia more evident.

Therefore, see a proper optometrist to seek advice on hyperopia.

ASTIGMATISM

Astigmatism is a condition of the eye in which commonly, the cornea (the clear covering of the front of the eye) has an irregular curve, causing out-of-focus vision.

Normally the cornea is smooth and equally curved in all directions and therefore, light entering the cornea is focused equally on all planes. In

astigmatism, the front surface of the cornea is curved more in one direction than in the other. This abnormality may result in vision that is much like looking into a distorted image.

In addition, the orientation of the astigmatism curvature will contribute to various type of blurriness. Basically, it can be divided into 3 categories, “With the Rule Astigmatism”, “Against the Rule Astigmatism”, and “Oblique Astigmatism”.

The different orientation of the astigmatism differs for each individual. Therefore, two persons who have same degree of astigmatism may not see the same, because of the orientation of the astigmatism.
People who are moderately or severely astigmatism may need to be corrected with cylindrical lenses in eyeglasses or toric contact lenses. It may also be corrected by refractive surgery, such as LASIK.

The cause of astigmatism is still unknown. It is usually present from birth, and often occurs together with myopia or hyperopia.
Most of the time, an astigmatism person may squeeze the eyelid to see better.

By narrowing the eyelid, the abnormal curvature of the eye will be minimized and therefore reducing the irregular light from entering the eye.
Most people have some degree of astigmatism. Slight amounts of astigmatism usually don’t affect vision and don’t require treatment. However, larger amounts cause distorted, blurred vision, eye discomfort and headaches.

Children who are astigmatism may have a higher risk for amblyopia (also known as “lazy eye”). Therefore, it is important for children to have eye screening when they are young.

How do you self-test to see whether you have breach your eye abilities?

1. Select a far distance object. Spend a few minutes with your VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT. Immediately change your focus to see the far distance object. If you experience a delay in focusing the far object. This tell you that your flexibility in focusing image is going fatigue. The focusing lens build inside our eye is same like a camera lens. Imagine a camera lenses that stuck on focusing near object for too long and has difficulties focusing far distance. If you have experience this, immediately shift your focus more often, from near to distance.

2. If you experience any slight pain or uncomfortable in the eye. The easiest way to check your eye is go to a mirror and have a look at your eye, whenever there is redness in the eye and located on 3 or 9 o`clock, where 6 and 12 o`clock is free of redness. It is chances that your eye is too dry. It is mostly due to less blinking while using VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT.

3. Image in VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT appear double, floating or fussy. This happen when the eye is too fatigue, either the autofocus or the convergence muscle has no more strength to focus.

How to maintain a healthy eye sight with VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT?
1. Always aware to focus distance object when using VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT. This allows the eye to be more flexible in focusing an object. If you have a limited space especially in office and etc, try hanging scenery or any picture that can relax the mind. It will automatically relax the eye as well.

2. Aware blinking. Most of the time when display messages are too excited, the will power supersedes your blinking and other unconscious reflex. This cause dryness in your eye.

3. Adjust the brightness of VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT display so that it is comfortable. Reverse contrast has more benefit compare to normal display which white background and black foreground.

4. Always adjust your VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT so that it is below your eye level. Various study has shown that by lowering your eye looking at VIASUL DISPLAY UNIT, it can reduce tiredness in the eye and other part of the body.

Vision Development of a Child

Vision is a learning process, which a child have to go thru before they can recognise and interpret an object.
In the early stage of the child, the first lesson, they learn is the abilities to aware or notice light. Finding an object and looking at it (fixating) long enough to be aware of it or recognise it colour and brightness.
Second is the abilities to control the eye movement; these include following object movement and the ability to scan and find object.

Third is the ability to discriminate object. Recognition of objects from an outline or general shape, follow by identifies the detail of an object.
Final lesson is the ability to identify and perceive patterns, numbers and words, which refer to matching letters and numbers by the similar or different features of them. For instances, match pictures of objects or animals and shapes which face in the same directions.

Matching or sorting letters with similar parts,
1,_ ,3,_ ,5,6
When this hierarchy of learning are breach, the child abilities to learn thru seeing will slow down. It might appear that the child cannot perform in the class. But in fact, the fundamental of seeing is not fully developed.