What is Hyperopia?

About one-fourth of the population suffers from Hyperopia, or farsightedness. In hyperopia distant vision is usually quite good, but the problem comes with focusing on close objects.

It is very common for farsighted people to have headaches or eye strain and they struggle or feel fatigued when performing work at close range. This situation worsens with advancing age, when Presbyopia further compromises the ability to see at near.

In hyperopia typically the cornea is too flat or not curved enough to allow light rays to focus on the retina and they come to a theoretical focus behind the retina rather than directly on it. A farsighted eyeball is typically shorter than the nearsighted eye.

Children born with hyperopia are usually harder to detect in school and pediatrician screenings because they can usually see the eye chart used for testing at 20 feet quite well and the testing for near vision problems are usually only done in Ophthalmologists’ offices. Such testing should be mandatory, because uncorrected hyperopia in a child can be one of the causes of amblyopia and/or strabismus. These can usually be corrected if detected prior to age 5.

Glasses or contact lenses can be used to correct farsightedness by changing the way light rays enter the eyes. Glasses or contact lens prescriptions begin with plus numbers, like +2.50 when you are farsighted. Depending on the prescription and the work environment, farsighted persons may need to wear their glasses or contacts all the time or only when reading, working on a computer, or doing other close-up work such as hobbies requiring fine close vision.

LASIK or Epi-LASIK is another successful method for correcting hyperopia and should reduce or eliminate the need to wear glasses or contact lenses. There are also more invasive surgical methods to correct farsightedness, which are beyond the scope of this article.

Back to Lasik Home Page

We accept these major credit cards.