Question

A 45-year-old office worker complained of difficulty in near vision. He has never used spectacles in the past. In the emmetropic patient, presbyopia can be corrected by prescribing:

1) Single Vision Spectacles
2) Bifocal Spectacles
3) Contact Lenses
4) Refractive Surgery

Answer 1

Presbyopia, the loss of the eye's ability to focus on close objects as we age, is corrected with Single Vision Spectacles containing converging lenses, but LASIK surgery for distance vision does not eliminate the need for reading glasses.Hence, the correct answer is option 1.

Step-by-step explanation:

The condition known as presbyopia affects the eye's ability to focus on close objects, typically becoming apparent in adults in their 40s or 50s. It is corrected by adding power for near vision through the use of converging lenses. A 45-year-old emmetropic (normally-sighted) office worker complaining of difficulty in near vision would likely benefit from Single Vision Spectacles specifically designed for reading. If distance vision is already good, there may not be a need for multifocal lenses, such as bifocals, which have separate regions for distance and near vision. Although contact lenses and refractive surgeries like LASIK can correct myopia or hyperopia, they may not fully correct presbyopia, especially if only distance vision is corrected surgically; reading glasses might still be necessary.

For aging adults with presbyopia whose distance vision is corrected with LASIK, the need for reading glasses post-surgery is still likely because LASIK does not address the loss of elasticity in the lens or the weakening of the muscles controlling the lens which lead to presbyopia.