No one escapes good ole Mother Nature and aging affects your entire body, including your eyes. Over time, you may notice changes that impact your vision and even your quality of life.
Understanding what aging means for your eyes can enable you to take proactive steps to protect your sight. Keep reading to learn more about whether vision changes will continue with age!
Yes, your vision will continue to evolve throughout your life. As you grow older, you may notice several changes, including:
Drooping or sagging eyelids
Chronic dry eyes with irritation
Difficulty reading close-up text (needing to hold materials farther away)
Vision that appears cloudy or foggy
Gradual deterioration in visual acuity
Aging can trigger various eye conditions that affect how well you see. We've compiled a list of the most common age-related vision changes you might experience such as:
Dry eye is a condition that happens when your eyes don't make enough tears or produce low-quality tears that evaporate too quickly. Tear production typically decreases as you get older.
Over time, the lacrimal glands in your eyes tend to become less efficient, secreting fewer tears. Without sufficient tears, your eyes can become dry and irritated, leading to symptoms such as:
Blurred or double vision
Eye redness
Sensitivity to light
A stinging or burning sensation
Strings of mucus around the eyes
A feeling of having something in the eyes
Trouble wearing contact lenses
Eye fatigue
If you're experiencing any of these symptoms, please know you're not alone, and we're here to help you find relief.
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that affects your vision. It happens when high glucose or blood sugar levels damage the blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of your eye that helps you see clearly.
Approximately over half of the people with diabetes develop retinopathy with time. Diabetic retinopathy usually causes no symptoms in the early stages.
But as the condition progresses, you may experience the following:
Blurry vision
Poor night vision
Colors appearing faded
Dark or blank areas in the field of vision
Increase in the number of floaters
A cataract is the clouding of the natural lens of your eye. As you get older, proteins inside your lens can start to break down, stick together, and accumulate, clouding your lens.
Cataracts typically develop slowly, so you may not experience any symptoms early on. But as they grow larger with time, you may notice symptoms such as:
Clouded or blurred vision
Seeing halos around lights
Sensitivity to glare and light
Difficulty seeing at night
Double vision in one eye
Frequent prescription changes
Colors appearing muted or faded
Need for brighter lighting for close-up activities
Presbyopia is the loss of your eye's ability to focus on up-close objects. It often becomes noticeable in your 40s and worsens until about age 65.
Before age 40, your lens is flexible, allowing your eyes to easily shift focus from far away objects to objects that are up close. But as you age, your lens gradually becomes less flexible and more rigid, making it challenging to hold the focus on nearby objects.
As a result, close-up objects appear blurry. When you have presbyopia, you may experience symptoms such as:
Holding reading materials further away to see better
Blurred vision at reading distance
Headaches and eye strain after doing up-close work
Ptosis, also called drooping eyelids, is a condition where your upper eyelid falls or sags over your eye. As you age, the levator and Mueller’s muscles that lift your eyelid can weaken, resulting in drooping.
Your skin may also stretch and weaken, making your eyelids sag. Ptosis can affect one or both eyelids.
and can limit or completely obstruct normal vision.
Other symptoms of ptosis include eye fatigue or eyestrain from frequently lifting your eyelids to see clearly.
Thankfully, there may be options for treatment and may include:
Your eye doctor may prescribe tear stimulation eye drops to help boost tear production and alleviate dry eye symptoms. If prescription drops don’t work, they may suggest punctal plugs to conserve your tears.
Punctal plugs are tiny biocompatible devices that are implanted into your tear ducts to slow or stop drainage. This allows tears to remain on the surface of your eyes longer, relieving dry eyes.
If you have presbyopia and wish to reduce your reliance on visual aids, your eye doctor may recommend monovision LASIK or PRK. LASIK and PRK are vision correction procedures that use lasers to reshape the cornea and fix your refractive error.
Unlike conventional LASIK or PRK procedures, monovision entails using the laser to modify each of your corneas to a different shape, one eye see for up close and the other for near vision, thus helping with presbyopia.
Usually, the cornea in your dominant eye is reshaped to provide the best distance vision, while the cornea in your non-dominant eye is adjusted to deliver the best up-close vision, reducing or eliminating the need for glasses or contact lenses.
Many of our patients tell us that monovision LASIK has been life-changing, allowing them to read menus and use their smartphones without reaching for reading glasses.
Treatment will depend on the severity of your condition. It may include keeping your blood sugar in check or possibly injecting medications into your eye.
This will be the discussion you will have with your eye care professional and if needed, we would refer you to a retina specialist
When cataracts start to impact your ability to read, drive, watch TV, and perform other routine activities, your optometrist or ophthalmologist will recommend cataract surgery. Cataract surgery is the only way to eliminate cataracts permanently.
It involves removing the natural lens of your eye affected by a cataract and replacing it with a prescribed intraocular lens (IOL), which restores clear, sharp vision.
Your eye doctor may refer you to a specialist who can perform ptosis repair to improve the function of your eyelids and your field of vision. The procedure can include the tightening of loose muscles, lifting eyelids, or removing excess eyelid skin.
While vision changes are a natural part of life's journey, you don't have to navigate them alone. Our caring team at Providence Eye & Laser Specialists is here to walk alongside you, ensuring you enjoy the best vision possible at every age.
During your personalized eye exam, we'll take the time to listen to your concerns, thoroughly evaluate your vision, and create a plan that works for your unique eyes and lifestyle.
Are you experiencing changes to your vision, or has it been long since you last had your eye exam? Schedule your appointment with us at Providence Eye & Laser Specialists in Charlotte, NC, today!
