Farsightedness (hyperopia) is actually a more common visual condition in the population than nearsightedness (myopia). It is the result of an imbalance between the focusing power of the eyeball ands its axial length. When a person is young, the natural focusing power of the eye is sufficiently strong to correct for this imbalance. As we reach our mid-life period, our focusing ability declines. People who are farsighted begin to notice difficulty reading and seeing clearly at distances. (Please note: The need to simply wear glasses for reading only is called Presbyopia and cannot be eliminated with any current laser treatment. LASIK is designed to improve your distance vision).

The symptoms of hyperopia are related to ocular fatigue from the use of your eyes and the associated strain. Often, people who never had to use glasses, find themselves wearing bifocals all the time (and resenting it!). Their glasses can be quite annoying and can end-up looking quite thick and cosmetically unappealing. Others who have worn contact lenses successfully for many years, find their contacts less comfortable; and they now need to wear reading glasses over their contacts.

With LASIK, we can reduce or eliminate the need for glasses or contacts for distance viewing. Using the latest techniques, and eye-tracking lasers exclusively, the results have been excellent. Please be aware that the visual recovery for farsighted patients is somewhat slower than for myopic patients and tends to take a bit more time for the results to stabilize.

Hyperopic LASIK works by treating the peripheral cornea. Tissue is removed with the excimer laser which results in the steepening of the central cornea. The post-operative care is the same as for myopia.

LASIK works well for patients who are hyperopic (with or without astigmatism) up to about + 4.00.

In patients who are more farsighted than that amount, I have had excellent results with the Preslex procedure. Prelex stands for: Presbyopic Lens Exchange. In patients who are over the age of 40, and have prescriptions over +4.50 diopters, I have had excellent results with removing their natural lens (similar to doing modern small incision cataract surgery – see the Cataract Page).

I can replace the natural lens with an artificial lens. In properly selected cases, I have replaced the natural lens with a multifocal lens implant (the Array lens) and have successfully restored both the distance and reading vision for the patient, dramatically reducing their dependency on glasses. Some of the happiest patients I have done surgery on have been in this group of patients.

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