Hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia are ocular refractive errors. In Spain, more than half of the population has one or more of these refractive problems. The way to correct them is by using contact lenses or by surgery, an increasingly common method.
Farsightedness
Farsightedness is a refractive error caused primarily by a small eye length, which results in a blurring of the image on the retina. People experience this visual problem in different ways depending on their age. When the person is young, they may compensate for this problem or experience eyestrain.
On the other hand, when the problem affects an older patient, he or she may experience near vision problems and end up having far vision problems as well.
Myopia
Myopia is a refractive error caused by a large eye length, causing a blurring of the image on the retina. The symptoms that people who experience this problem have are: blurred distant vision, squinting to focus properly, moving closer to objects to see them well, visual fatigue and headache.
Presbyopia or eyestrain
Refractive error caused by the loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens and the muscles that surround it. People who experience this problem have blurred vision accompanied by eyestrain. It usually appears after 45 years of age.
Astigmatism
The cause of eyestrain is a difference in curvature between two perpendicular meridians, basically of the cornea. People with this problem experience distorted vision at all distances.
It is a stable problem throughout life and can be accompanied by myopia, hyperopia and presbyopia.
Treatments for correcting ocular refractive errors
The ophthalmologist, after a thorough study of the eye, will inform the patient which treatment to follow. The treatments to correct farsightedness, nearsightedness and astigmatism are:
- Laser surgery with LASIK and PRK. This treatment aims to change the diopters of the cornea and focus the image correctly on the retina.
- Surgery with phakic lenses.
- Clear lens surgery.
- Optical corrections
- Contact lenses.