Patients over the age of 40 who require reading glasses have a condition called presbyopia which makes it difficult to change focus for reading. When those patients undergo LASIK or ASA to correct their myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism, they will likely continue to require reading glasses, unless they elect monovision LASIK or ASA.
One of the recent trends in ophthalmology is for patients to undergo LASIK or ASA to eliminate their refractive error and then later, follow the procedure with Crystalens(R), ReSTOR(R), or Tecnis(R) Multifocal lens implants when their near vision becomes affected by presbyopia. These accommodating or multifocal intraocular lenses are designed to replace the natural lens, granting patients with presbyopia vision at distance, near, and intermediate. Lens implant surgery has the additional benefit of circumventing the eventual development of cataracts as the natural lenses are removed in the process of implanting the intraocular lenses.
