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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
Presbyopia is caused by a hardening of the lens of your eye, which occurs with aging. As your lens becomes less flexible, it can no longer change shape to focus on close-up images. As a result, these images appear out of focus.
To form an image, your eye relies on the cornea and the lens to focus the light reflected from objects. The cornea is the clear, dome-shaped front surface of your eye. The lens is a clear structure about the size and shape of an M&M's candy. Both of these structures bend (refract) light entering your eye to focus the image on the retina, located on the inside back wall of your eye.
The lens, unlike the cornea, is somewhat flexible and can change shape with the help of a circular muscle that surrounds it. When you look at something at a distance, the circular muscle relaxes. When you look at something nearby, the muscle constricts, allowing the relatively elastic lens to curve more steeply and change its focusing power.
- Mian SI. Visual impairment in adults: Refractive disorders and presbyopia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Aug. 7, 2011.
- Optometric clinical practice guideline: Care of the patient with presbyopia. American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/documents/CPG-17.pdf. Accessed Aug. 7, 2011.
- Policy statement: Frequency of eye exams. American Academy of Ophthalmology. http://one.aao.org/CE/PracticeGuidelines/ClinicalStatements_Content.aspx?cid=810eaf61-181e-41c8-a0e8-e1d122efe5a4. Accessed Aug. 7, 2011.
- Preferred practice pattern: Refractive errors & refractive surgery. American Academy of Ophthalmology. http://one.aao.org/CE/PracticeGuidelines/PPP_Content.aspx?cid=e6930284-2c41-48d5-afd2-631dec586286. Accessed Aug. 7, 2011.
- Garcia-Gonzalez M, et al. Visual outcomes of LASIK-induced monovision in myopic patients with presbyopia. American Journal of Ophthalmology. 2010;150:381.
- What is LASIK? U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/SurgeryandLifeSupport/LASIK/ucm061358.htm. Accessed Aug. 8, 2011.
- Alternative refractive surgery procedures. EyeSmart. http://www.geteyesmart.org/eyesmart/glasses-contacts-lasik/refractive-surgery-alternative-procedures.cfm. Accessed Aug. 8, 2011.
- Kubal AA. Multifocal versus accommodating intraocular lenses: A review of the current technology, outcomes, and complications. International Ophthalmology Clinics. 2011;51:131.
- Robertson DM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 24, 2011.
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