Common Visual Problems
What is hyperopia, and how can it be fixed?
Fed up with squinting at your phone, or with glasses that fog up and slip down your nose? If farsightedness is blurring your world, LASIK could improve your vision without glasses or contacts. Here’s how the condition works and what to know before you start.
The basics
What is farsightedness?
Two parts of the eye do the focusing: the cornea, the transparent surface of your eye, and the lens, which sits behind your iris and changes shape as you focus. Together they bend light onto the retina at the back of the eye, which sends visual information to your brain.
If your cornea is too flat or your eye is too short, light can’t focus on the retina. This is a refractive error. It’s common: farsightedness affects almost 10% of Americans, and about half of people over 65.
Two types of farsightedness
- Hyperopia is the type you’re born with, where the cornea is too flat or the eyeball is too short.
- Presbyopia is the type that develops with age, often called “aging eyes.”
Common symptoms
Not everyone with farsightedness notices a problem. When eye muscles strain to compensate, you may experience:
- Blurry vision up close
- Eye aches and general eyestrain
- Headaches, especially while reading
- Involuntary squinting to see more clearly
In a normal eye, light focuses on the retina. In hyperopia, the eye is too short or the cornea too flat, so light focuses behind it.
Causes
What causes farsightedness?
It’s hard to know exactly what causes farsightedness, but a few patterns are well established.
Present from birth
It’s possible to be born with farsightedness and not notice any effect on your vision until you’re older.
Hereditary
Experts believe farsightedness may run in families, passed down from parents to children.
Rare medical causes
In rare cases, farsightedness may result from diabetes, a tumor, or fovea hypoplasia, an underdevelopment of the macula.
60-second check
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What is farsightedness?
How farsightedness is diagnosed
If you think you might be farsighted, see an ophthalmologist. A few simple, pain-free tests determine the degree of farsightedness and the best treatment for your needs and lifestyle.
Dilated eye health exam
Dilation gives your doctor a wider view of your eyes. They may feel light-sensitive for a few hours afterward.
Refraction assessment
You read a chart from across the room, and your doctor may test your vision up close as well.
Retinoscope check
If the tests point to farsightedness, a retinoscope checks how light reflects off your retina.
A treatment recommendation
Your doctor helps you decide which option for correcting the refractive error fits you best.
References
- Genotypic and Phenotypic Spectrum of Foveal Hypoplasia. Ophthalmology (American Academy of Ophthalmology), 2022. aaojournal.org (opens in a new tab)