The KAMRA Inlay is a breakthrough in correcting the need for reading glasses, and is now our primary treatment for anyone aged 45 upwards. You can read an article from yesterday’s London Evening Standard all about KAMRA. It features Karen who had the Keyhole KAMRA version, where no LASIK-type flap is created, and the inlay is simply inserted into a tiny pocket through a keyhole entrance. Unlike LASIK, there is no significant dry eye and the patient could even rub their eyes afterwards without risk of dislodging anything.

You can see the full article here: www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24014966-london-clinic-develops-10-minute-operation-to-freeze-failing-eyesight.do

You can learn more about KAMRA and presbyopia here at KAMRAvision.com

Peter asked:

I had laser eye surgery in 1995 for short sightedness. Long distance has become blurred e.g. night driving affected. Will naturally occurring long sightedness change this over time I’m 47?

Peter, you have become somewhat myopic (short-sighted) again, either through progression of your condition (can be associated with high amounts of near work, although that story is not straight-forward), or regression of your treatment, or both combined.
At 47, most people will be showing signs of presbyopia, or age-related loss of near vision. Your myopia will mask those symptoms if you are not wearing glasses or contact lens correction, and so in fact is of some benefit to you. Your presbyopia will have minimal effect on your distance vision though, and will not neutralize it. One option is to get one eye retreated to fix the distance and get a blended vision combination, and so see well for far and near. Will depend on your current prescription though.

Liz asked:

Hello, I do not suffer with headaches etc but I do have to be at least a 12 inches away to be able to for example focus on the smallest words of this website. Any nearer and the words are out of focus but I can read them at a distance. How much would it be for you to correct this to at least 20/20 vision please? Many thanks, Liz.

Liz, you have presbyopia so reading vision is getting blurry, but the distance vision remains clear. This happens to everyone starting in their 40s. Sometimes only one eye needs to be treated if there is no distance glasses prescription, which is about 15% of presbyopic patients. Presbyopic treatments need to be performed very accurately and choice of surgeon (and technology) becomes even more important that in myopia correction (distance vision, short-sight). The cost at Focus is £2,200 per eye. Regards, Dave

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Nicholas asked:

Hi Dave, my wife had a consultation about having a laser treatment, because she got fed up of wearing varifocal glasses. She was told that she will still have to wear reading glasses, although they will perform the wavefront laser technique. Her age is 55. They said over the age of 45 you might still need reading glasses. What is your opinion on this please?

Hi Nicholas, LASIK blended vision can correct both distance and near vision, and so reduce or eliminate the need for reading glasses. I know of only two clinics that specifically offer LASIK blended vision. Expect to pay around £2000-2300 per eye. If you only want distance corrected, all laser clinics will offer that.

Gill asked this question about laser eye surgery for varifocal and reading glasses:

Dear Mr Allamby, I was told last year by my optician I would benefit from varifocal lenses, which I hate. My prescription was:
R: Plano (zero) /-2.75 x 180
L: Plano (zero) /-1.25 x 175
Near Add: +1.50D
I am 51 years old. I had a consultation for corrective surgery and told I only need right eye done. Is this correct and how much would this be likely to cost at Focus? Thank you, (brilliant and most helpful blog by the way)
Gill

Hi Gill, You have myopic (short-sighted) astigmatism, with mild astigmatism in the left eye and a moderately higher amount in the right. Additionally, at age 51 you also have presbyopia, which is an age related loss of near vision (itself a form of long-sight). So you have three eye conditions together – myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia, which all need correcting (!) if you want to be pretty independent of glasses. However, correction is certainly possible.

I specialise in correcting these kind of prescriptions, over the last 7-8 years, and have done thousands of cases. I would need to assess which is the dominant eye and correct that eye fully. However, contrary to what the other clinic said, leaving astigmatism in the eye which is to read rarely is successful. So with your prescription I almost always treat both eyes. Of course, everything depends on what we find at the consultation, but this will give you a strong idea of what you likely need.

I charge just under £4,000 for both eyes for wavefront Ziemer Z-LASIK. If you want me personally to do your initial consultation rather than one of my team, add £200. The blended vision presbyopia treatments will be increasing soon, likely to £4,400 for both eyes.

Hope that helps explain somewhat Gill. If you post on the comments below, your reply will also come to me.

You can see more information in the first featured article above on how laser eye surgery is now used to correction problems with reading vision.

Most people start to need reading glasses after the age of 45 and previously were not eligible for laser eye treatment. All that has changed with advances in technology. FOCUS Laser Vision has been very active in this increasingly popular area of laser eye correction.