I've been wearing glasses since I was 8, will I eventually loss all my vision? When will it stop getting worse?

There is a genuine concern every time a patient steps into my exam room regarding the worsening of their vision.  They are afraid to even tell me they might be blurry when viewing either near or far objects. Patients often assume if I prescribe a stronger correction that their eyes will continue to deteriorate and eventually they will be completely blind.  Not true, let me explain.  

There are four basic reasons patients need to wear glasses.  I'm about to simplify these terms as best as I can, it's a lot easier to better understand it's progression when we start with definition. Our vision is directly related to the size of our eyes, let's say for argument's sake the perfect length is a size 5.

1. Myopia:  The eyeball is simply too long, say size 6 or 8 or 10.  The images for these patients are blurry at a distance, but near is pretty clear.  Shows up during puberty.

2. Hyperopia:  The eyeball is simply too short, say size 4 or 3 or 2.  The images for these patients are blurry at near (distance eventually is also affected), discovered a bit later in life.  However if the eye is really small it's discovered in younger children.  This discrepancy is the toughest one to diagnosis since eye muscles can help to hide the problem, muscle that get weaker as we age.  The complaint is usually headaches/strain before blur.

3. Astigmatism:  The eyeball surface is too curved.  The images for these patients are blurred/distorted at near and distance.  Patients affected can be any age.  Astigmatism could combine itself with either myopia or hyperopia or stand alone.  

4.  Presbyopia:  The muscle in the eye is no longer able to focus at near (after age 40, guaranteed).  This change will also combine itself with any presenting discrepancy that patient had before their surprise 40th birthday party (ie. Rx: myopia + astigmatism + presbyopia= you really need to wear glasses).  

Now that we know the words defining our blurry vision I can explain how it develops as we age.  The eye will shrink as we get older.  Think about this: the myope (longer eye) will get smaller, the hyperope (small eye) will get even smaller and so on.  Therefore some patients' vision will seem to improve while others will seem to worsen, but really it's just shape change.  Lesson learned here is that your vision will continue to change through out your life, but you will always be able to see it clearly with proper correction and good health (ie. disease free).  So embrace your glasses and start thinking healthy to keep those eyes working until you are 105 years old.  

See and Be Seen! at Eyed LA Optometry in Brentwood, West Los Angeles

www.eyedla.com