What is Hyperopia?
Hyperopia, also known as farsightedness, is a common vision problem. People with hyperopia can see distant objects clearly, but have difficulty focusing on objects that are close. Farsightedness occurs if your eyeball is too short or the cornea has too little curvature.
It is a refractive error, which means that the eye does not bend or refract light properly to a single focus to see images clearly.
For people with significant hyperopia, vision can be blurry for objects at any distance, near or far. It is an eye focusing disorder, not an eye disease.
The symptoms of hyperopia vary from person to person. If you're holding your reading material farther and farther away from your eyes in order to see it more clearly, you may be developing farsightedness.
Other most common signs and symptoms include:
- Headaches
- Eyestrain
- Squinting to see more clearly
- Burning eyes
- Blurry vision
- Difficulty in maintaining a clear focus on near objects
What Causes Hyperopia?
Refraction is the bending of light as it passes through one object to another. Our eyes to be able to see when light rays are bent (refracted) as they pass through the cornea and the lens. The light is then focused on the retina. The retina receives the picture formed by these light rays and sends the image to the brain.
Hyperopia occurs when the eyeball is shorter than normal or has a cornea with abnormal shape, this prevents incoming light from focusing directly on the retina. When light rays focus beyond the retina instead of on it, it allows you to see distant objects somewhat clearly but near objects will appear more blurred.
Hyperopia is usually a genetic trait. Most children are born farsighted. But as long as the farsightedness is not too severe, they will have clear vision for seeing objects at a distance and up close. With focusing, eyes will be able to bend the light rays and place them directly on the retina. As the eye grows and becomes longer, hyperopia lessens.
How is Hyperopia diagnosed?
A Common vision screening or visual acuity test may not diagnose Hyperopia as these tests normally focus on evaluating distance vision, not your ability to see close objects.
An eye examination by your eye doctor can detect farsightedness. If the test shows that you are farsightedness then your doctor will perform comprehensive eye exam by using certain test devices to learn what is causing the hyperopia. By shining a special light into your eyes, a retinoscope will be used to see how light reflects off your retina.
Through a comprehensive eye exam, doctor will not only be able to detect problems, but also can determine the degree and ideal treatments for those problems.
Treatment for Hyperopia
- Children with mild hyperopia may not need corrective lenses or any treatment. As they grow eyes becomes longer, hyperopia lessens.
- People who are older or are severely farsighted will have a variety of treatment options available to them.
- The simplest treatment for farsightedness is wearing corrective lenses, either eyeglasses or contact lenses, which allows you to see close objects clearly.
- Another option for treating farsightedness is surgery. Two common surgeries available to treat farsightedness are:
- LASIK, in this procedure, the doctor first cuts a round, hinged flap in your cornea.
- LASEK, in this procedure, the doctor works only on the cornea's thin outer layer.
There is not adequate scientific evidence to suggest that eye exercises, vitamins or pills can prevent or cure hyperopia.