Beating Father Time: A Surgical Way to Eliminate Reading Glasses

Michelle Johnson

by Michelle Johnson | August 9, 2010 @ 04:00PM


The aging Baby Boomer generation is coming to understand their parents' joke about their arms getting shorter as they got older. They are now living through it themselves. They are finding it difficult to read books or the newspaper even at full arms' length. Reading menus in a dimly lit restaurant is impossible, following cooking instructions on a package is difficult, and threading a needle is a Herculean task. With so many parts of their life affected, it is no wonder this problem, technically known as presbyopia, chains reading glasses firmly around the neck of so many people over 40 . However, there is a new surgical procedure, currently in clinical trials before the FDA, that could free the over-40 crowd from their dependency on eyeglasses.

Surgical Reversal of Presbyopia, or SRP, can surgically alter the eye so that the lens can focus on close objects, eliminating the need for reading glasses. Briefly, the procedure involves placing inserts in the white of the eye, lengthening the distance the focusing muscles of the eye have to work.

Lifestyle issues often motivate people seeking SRP. It is difficult to accept being reliant on the availability of glasses in order to read . Notoriously easy to misplace, and even buying multiple pairs of glasses does not always solve the problem. Let's face it, putting on a pair of reading glasses ages a person. It may not solely be a question of vanity, but a question of independence and confidence. If the treatment creates more independence and confidence about one's appearance, it might be something to consider.

It was more than vanity, however, that recently motivated one patient to seek out this treatment. A part-time actor, he believed that his access to desirable parts was being limited by his use of reading glasses at auditions. Necessary for performing sight-reading, the actor saw the glasses as a contributing factor to his being perceived as older than he was. For his everyday work as a real estate agent, close range vision would also help him read the listings that are important to real estate. He simply wanted to be able to pick up anything he wanted to and read it, without any preliminaries. After having SRP performed in a clinic in Puerto Vallarta a year ago, he now can.

Presbyopia is an unavoidable consequence of aging, affecting nearly 100 percent of those over the age of 40. However reading glasses no longer have to be the answer. Whether it is to improve appearance, change perceptions, or just eliminate the need to have reading glasses, this procedure can help address these concerns. Only an examination by an ophthalmologist can determine whether someone is a candidate for this procedure, but if the farsightedness is caused by presbyopia, SRP may be the answer to freedom from the hassles and headaches of reading glasses. 

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