Hyperopia Diagnosis and Treatment by Our Optometry Team

Farsightedness (hyperopia) interferes with your ability to see things up close. The opposite of myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia is caused by your eyes being too short in length, which inhibits incoming light from reaching the retina. Unless light entering your eyes is focused directly on your retina, one or more refractive errors (such as farsightedness or nearsightedness) can prevent you from seeing well without wearing corrective lenses. In some cases, abnormally shaped corneas or eye lenses (instead of shortened eyeballs) can lead to symptoms of hyperopia such as blurry vision and headaches from eye strain.

How Does Your Optometrist Diagnose Hyperopia?

Using Snellen alphabet eye charts, your eye doctor can quickly determine whether you have hyperopia by asking you to read smaller letters at a close distance. A retinoscope reflecting a beam of light off your retina also aids your eye doctor in diagnosing farsightedness. Finally, an ophthalmological instrument called a phoropter measures precisely your degree of farsighted refractive errors.

Treating Hyperopia

Eyeglasses and contact lenses are the most common types of treatment for hyperopia. Some people find that contact lenses work better to provide relief from symptoms of farsightedness and to improve vision affected by hyperopia. This is because contacts offer wider vision fields and refract light better than eyeglass lenses. If you are interested in contact lenses, talk to your eye doctor about getting fitted for contacts.

Refractive surgery is another option for people with hyperopia who do not want to wear glasses or contacts. LASIK surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that reshapes the cornea to improve the way light is refracted and focused on the retina. If you have mild to moderate hyperopia, refractive surgery may reduce dependency on corrective lenses or even eliminate your need to wear glasses or contacts.

Schedule an Appointment with Our Optometry Team

If you are having difficulty reading fine print or seeing things up close, please call (303) 254-4888 to schedule an appointment at Best Eyecare Associates.