What is Hyperopia? How to Treat?

As a result of the anterior posterior length of the eye being shorter than the population average, images are focused behind the centre of vision. This type of eye disorder is called hyperopia. Children are expected to be hyperopic from birth. As the eye length increases as they grow older, the degree of hyperopia decreases with age. Although the term hypermetropia is popularly known as "nearsightedness", people with hypermetropia have difficulty seeing both near and far. Especially at the age of 40, when the near vision capacity begins to weaken (presbyopia), the blurred vision becomes more pronounced with the combination of hypermetropia with presbyopia.

People with hypermetropia, i.e. + (plus) numbers, experience complaints of confusing letters while reading, hazy vision, pain around the eyes and head area after prolonged reading and looking at the screen. The fact that these people see clearly without glasses does not mean that they do not have eye disorders. Wearing glasses for people with complaints of pain and fatigue in their eyes can be supportive in terms of clear vision and reducing complaints, which is why it is popularly known as "relaxing glasses". As can be understood from this, wearing glasses is an auxiliary tool for hypermetropic people to relieve complaints and does not have a therapeutic effect on the eye number and does not lower the number.

Contact lenses, refractive surgery (LASIK or PRK/no touch laser) and transparent lens replacement surgery are the options other than glasses for hypermetropic eye disorder. Contact lenses, the first of these, are considered to be a more comfortable option than glasses, provided that hygiene and usage rules are followed. There are contact lenses that correct only distant eye disorders as well as multifocal (near-far) contact lenses. In people over 40 years of age, multifocal contact lenses offer a comfortable vision opportunity for people in this age group, as the need for near glasses as well as distance glasses manifests itself.

In addition to glasses and contact lenses, there are also surgical methods to correct eye disorders in hypermetropic people. The first thing that comes to mind is refractive surgery, that is, it is a safe and comfortable surgical method applied with femtosecond laser, which is popularly known as "eye scratching", but no "scratching" is applied in current laser methods. With this surgical method, "resetting the number" is not a correct target definition in hypermetropic people. The main goal is to ensure that the person can see largely without glasses in all areas of his/her life. If the eye structures meet the eligibility criteria for refractive surgery, laser surgery can be applied.

It is also possible to correct hypermetropic eye disorder with intraocular surgical methods. The first of these methods is phakic intraocular lens implantation surgery. It is a valuable option in the age group before presbyopia, in the age group before presbyopia, in people with high hyperopia, in whom glasses, contact lenses and refractive surgery cannot be applied or are not preferred. The person's own lens is left in place and this second lens to be placed on it allows the person to achieve distance vision without glasses. The second method is transparent lens replacement surgery. This surgery can be performed in people who are in the age of presbyopia and who have not yet developed cataracts and who are suitable for this procedure. Transparent lens replacement is a procedure in which the lens of the eye is surgically removed and replaced with a trifocal (trifocal) intraocular lens. Since this procedure cannot be applied to every age and every eye, it requires a careful examination and detailed examination evaluation. When applied to patients who meet the eligibility criteria, the person can see near, middle and far distances without glasses.

Prepared by the Editorial Board of Eye Foundation Hospitals.