Hyperopia, or hypermetropia, and most commonly called farsighted and longsighted, is another refractive imperfection (like astigmatism and nearsightedness) wherein the light entering the eye is focused slightly behind the retina, resulting in the patient having slightly blurred vision.

The imperfection is caused by the eyeball being short or where the lens’ focusing power cannot make itself round enough. Usually the effect of this condition is that a hyperopic eye does not focus well on objects that are nearby whereas the patient may see well at a distance.

Hyperopia is often inherited. It is sometimes present at birth, although many kids outgrow it. The condition can cause eye strain, and headaches when reading or concentrating on close up objects, and may indicate a need for a new prescription if you already are wearing contact lenses or prescription glasses.

Hyperopic vision can be corrected with contact lenses or prescription glasses, which may need to be worn full time depending upon the level of vision correction. It can also be corrected with refractive surgery using either PRK (photorefractive keratectomy), where a laser is used to re-shape the cornea or more commonly with Lasik Eye Surgery (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) where a  laser removes some corneal tissue to reshape the lens of the cornea.

A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s naturally clear lens that causes blurred vision which is not correctable by ordinary prescription glasses or contact lenses. A cataract is formed when the crystalline lens of the eye thickens, hardens, or clouds, and loses and ability to change shape. Normally, the development of cataracts in either one or in both eyes reduces distance vision, causes glare in night vision, impaired depth perception, and reduces colour perception.

Most cataracts develop with advancing human age but can be present at birth or can be caused by injury to the eye. There are additional factors that can contribute to or hasten the development of a cataract on the lens such as; smoking, excessive exposure to the sun’s UV rays, steroid intake and also diabetes.

Impaired vision from Cataracts can be improved by surgery if cataracts cause sufficient loss of vision to interfere with daily activities. Your ophthalmologist will advise if your case is suitable for cataract surgery. Cataract surgery will improve vision in around 90% of patients. Cataracts may form again, but usually not for many years if you protect your health. Cataract surgery involves removing the eye’s diseased natural lens, and replacing it with an artificial lens implant called an intraocular lens.

Cataract surgery is a well developed science and commonplace these days. More than 1.3 million cataract operation  are performed annually in the USA alone. Even so, the degree of success depends upon the degree of the problem. The more mature the cataract, the more difficult the surgery. Even the most experienced surgeons can have problems removing a very mature cataract

The Cataract surgery operation is usually completed on an outpatient basis, under local anaesthesia which may be done solely with eye drops, so patients return home that evening. Patients remain awake during the procedure. Surgeons will normally operate on separate days if the patient has cataracts in both eyes.

The recovery period depends on the general health of the patient however, blurry vision can last a few days or weeks postoperatively. You will need to put eye drops in your operated eye at least four times a day for two to six weeks. Patients need to be careful touching or itching the irritated eye for the first four to six months.

Orthokeratology, also known as (Ortho-k), is a non-surgical technique for treating myopia, or nearsightedness, and can be a suitable alternative to lasik eye surgery that enables myopic condition patients to see better at a distance.

The process uses a series of more rigid contact lenses to reshape the cornea at night and provide a temporary reduction of myopia during the day. These special contact lenses apply pressure to the sides of the cornea and change their shape overnight.

Depending upon the individual patient, a programmed application of different contact lenses may be used. Results are dependent on the individual circumstances however selected patients can go through the whole day wearing no vision correcting prescription glasses or contact lenses.

Symptoms for patients that have astigmatism are in the appearance of objects which are distorted depending upon how bad the astigmatism condition is. Both closer and distant objects are distorted. The images are slightly blurred because some of the light rays are focused whilst others are not. This distortion effect is like that produced by looking through a wavy glass panel.

Our cornea is normally round and smooth. When a patient has an astigmatism, the cornea’s shape curves more oval causing the distorted vision. Astigmatism is an inherited condition, and may occur in combination with farsightedness or with nearsightedness.

Astigmatism is corrected by bending the light rays onto a single plane. There are several options for vision correction for astigmatic patients such as: prescription eye glasses, contact lenses, laser surgery such as, Astigmatic Keratotomy, or vision shaping treatments such as Orthokeratology.