Presbyopia “Lao Hua”
- Find yourself holding your phone farther away from your eyes in order to see clearer?
- Experience eyestrain and headaches after reading or doing near work?
Colloquially known as “lao hua” in Singapore, presbyopia is an age-related eye condition whereby the eyes gradually lose the ability to see clearly up close. In fact, the term “presbyopia” originates from a Greek word that literally means “old eyes”!
When we are young, the lenses of our eyes are flexible enough to adjust quickly and focus on objects both near and far alike. The eye achieves this by either contracting or relaxing its lens shape to bring things at varying distances into focus.
For instance, when it comes to nearby items like a mobile phone, the eye will contract the shape of its lens in order to focus on them.
However, as we age, the lens of our eyes become harder and less flexible and can no longer focus on nearby objects as well as they used to, causing our near vision to become blurry.
If presbyopia is the only vision problem one has, the treatment may simply be a good pair of reading glasses and opting for larger font sizes in their reading materials
However, if one has other accompanying vision problems, then reading glasses alone may not suffice; and you may require special bifocal, trifocal or progressive lenses that facilitate vision correction at different viewing distances. Special contact lenses may also be an option.
Some patients may opt for refractive surgery to achieve monovision, whereby one eye is corrected for far vision while the other is corrected for near vision. However, this may not be suitable or recommended for everyone.
- US FDA-Approved Proven to treat presbyopia
- Low-Maintenance One drop per eye, once daily
- Fast-Acting & Safe Generally, within 15 minutes
- Comfortable Does not disrupt everyday life
- Clear Vision Improve near vision & maintain distance vision
It is a pilocarpine-based ophthalmic solution; with pilocarpine being a chemical that reduces the size of one’s pupils and also stimulates one’s eye ciliary muscles, allowing the eyes to focus better on nearby objects.
Applied once a day, the effects can last for around six hours; with its effectiveness increasing after 30 days of use. It is not meant to completely eradicate the need for reading glasses, but it does allow you to rely on them less. A main benefit of this is that you do not need to remove your reading glasses when needing to see at distance. When Vuity is in effect, you can effortlessly switch between seeing near and far, clearly and naturally.
Finally, Vuity is also compatible with the use of regular glasses or contact lenses; so, you can continue to use them as per normal to enhance your vision overall.