What is farsightedness?

Hyperopia, more commonly known as farsightedness, causes the image of a close up object that is normally projected on your retina, to be projected behind your retina causing blurred vision. When a farsighted person views at an object that is up close, both of their eyes move in toward each other trying to converge the image. The same nerves that control the muscles of your eyes also control the focusing power of the lens in your eye. The lens and the muscles surrounding your eye are designed to work together to produce good, clear vision. But when a farsighted person looks at a close up object, their eyes naturally turn in toward the nose as the eyes adjust automatically. But at the same time your brain works to try to counteract what your eyes are naturally trying to do and tries to tell your eye muscles to move your eyes outward away from your nose.

The result of this battle between your brain and your eyes can cause eye strain and double vision. Patients with farsightedness state that when they are tired, they feel a 'pulling' in their eyes when they try to read. And especially when they are over-tired, they may end up seeing double. This is the dilemma when our brain tries hard to correct double vision but when we are tired, it can't compensate enough.

Is the battle between your eyes and your brain giving you a headache?

Patients with hyperopia complain that their eyes feel strained and they experience frequent headaches with the battle between the brain and the eyes each trying to do what they think is best. Imagine you are a farsighted visitor gazing up at Mount Rushmore. You are able to see the faces on Mount Rushmore clearly and then you glance down at your watch to see what time it is. Because of being farsighted, your eyeball is slightly shorter than normal and your brain sends a message to your corneal lens to try to compensate and become steeper, pulling your eyes away from your nose. But as your eyes try to focus on your watch, the eye muscles surrounding your eyes try to pull your eyeballs in toward your nose. No wonder this battle between your brain and your eyes results in eye strain.

Why does the problem of farsightedness become worse with age?

Many young people who are far sighted can see well enough without glasses because their corneal lens can accommodate by becoming thicker to bring close objects into focus and adjust to becoming flatter to allow clear vision in far away objects. But as we grow older, our corneal lens loses it's flexibility to change shape. Interestingly, almost all newborns are farsighted at birth.

How can Laser Eye Surgery help to correct far sightedness?

The farsighted eyeball may be too short from front to back for a clear image to be projected on the retina causing blurred vision for objects that are close. The other cause of farsightedness is a cornea that is too flat. To correct farsightedness with Laser Eye Surgery, the surgeon uses a laser to make the center of the cornea steeper which allows for more light bending ability which corrects the incoming light to focus on the retina instead of behind it. As the laser reshapes the cornea, it changes the angle at which you see images and therefore strengthens your vision significantly. Laser Eye Surgery can give you amazing results and permanently change the shape of your cornea in just minutes.