Question
I got an eye exam 4 years ago (I'm 27 now). She told me I was +2.5 and at 40 I'd need glasses fulltime! Worried, I followed a blog about worsening myopia by wearing minus lenses, hoping to negate my farsightedness (I know, shame on me).
So in a year I worked up to the strongest minus I could tolerate. I have no eyestrain or other symptoms. My accommodation hasn't gone down as I've read it should - why not? After 3 years in -4 contacts I can still read tiny text at 12", and work very close to my monitor 6hr/day.
Now a recent eyetest showed little change in my farsightedness. :-(
But I love the extra minus. I was afraid to ask questions; the doc was grumpy. Would you please answer mine?
Q#1) Will this habit preserve or damage my accommodation?
Q#2) Will I cause any other occular trouble (assuming I don't misuse my contacts, do get checkups, etc)?
Thanks.
Answer
Hi Robert,
Your doctor is right, you'll need glasses. At 27 you have enough accommodation to allow your over minus setup and still see up close. But it will change and you will eventually stop over minusing and then eventually use reading glasses. As you get yet much older, you will become less farsighted due to cataract formation, but will still need reading glasses though your unaided distance vision will seem to improve compared to what you will experience for unaided distance in your later 40's and 50's. The good news is you can't medically hurt yourself and if you are visually happy, no worries. You aren't really affecting anything. The bad new is you are stuck with your hyperopia unless you get refractive surgery.
Your accommodation has gone down, you just aren't measuring your amplitude of accommodation properly. Simply measure how close you can read small font (each eye separately also#. A web search produced one of the equation #http://www.answers.com/topic/amplitude-of-accommodation). Considering you are a 2.5 hyperope, you can see with a naked eye about 14 cm away.
Welcome to adulthood,
Mitch Axelrod, OD
