Farsightedness or hyperopia / hypermetropia is an eye defect in which a person cannot see sharply without accommodation of the eye.
Farsightedness is caused by a too short eye axis or too little strength of the refractive system of the eye (cornea plus lens), which creates the image of objects ‘behind the retina’. In order to get objects sharp on the retina, the lens of the eye will have to constantly accommodate, which is tiring and can cause headaches as well as burning eyes and concentration problems; especially in the evening. This has its limits, however, at high positive strengths and beyond the age of 40, it cannot be seen clearly in the distance.
When looking at objects that are close by, the accommodation capacity is put under even more pressure. In addition to the accommodation to correct in the distance, there will be more accommodation on top to see the nearby object sharply. Especially in people with high positive strengths and / or who are approaching the age of 40, the accommodation capacity will not be enough to reach the full near accommodation. As a result, objects nearby will not be seen sharply. The glasses against this are glasses to lift the accommodation in the distance (free up more accommodation capacity) and are therefore not reading glasses despite the fact that they seem to perform the same function.
Glasses with positive (convex) lenses can compensate for farsightedness.
Farsightedness is often not discovered during routine examination of vision (for example, at school), as it usually only examines distance vision.
Related articles
Short-sightedness (myopia)
Long-sightedness (presbyopia)
Human eye
Bates method
Glasses
