Adults Aged 20-40
This age group is dominated by the myopic or short-sighted population. These are the patients who have developed progressive short-sightedness over their rapid growth years (between eight and 17 years). They tend to have relatively stable vision in their 20’s and 30’s, only requiring occasional fine tuning of their prescription.
There is a smaller group of 20 to 40 year olds who have had excellent vision throughout their life but when they leave school and enter the workforce or attend tertiary education, their visual demands are much more excessive and the working day longer and they start to experience visual discomfort, headaches, or reading problems. These patients can get physically and mentally tired quite quickly, lose concentration, get sore and tired eyes, and frequently rub their eyes.
These symptoms can be due to a number of different visual complications. However we have found that the predominant problems are:
- lower degrees of uncorrected hypermetropia (long-sightedness)
- Convergence insufficiency. Take our simple Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Questionnaire.
These patients predominantly have symptom problems, (headaches etc). The condition is quite common and is often labelled “computer syndrome”. A routine eye examination by an Eyecatchers optometrist can resolve any issues quickly. The solution is often a combination of visual training and glasses to alleviate the strain.
There is a third group of individuals who start going slightly short-sighted in their mid 20s. They are often those spending long periods on a computer in an office environment. They usually stabilise quite quickly, but are still myopic (short-sighted) and dependent on their correction for distance vision and driving etc. These patients are often very happy with a combination of glasses for work and contact lenses for sport and socialising.
Eyecatchers Optometrists Invercargill Practice: 22 Kelvin Street – Ph: 03 218 8561 Gore Practice: 108 Main Street – Ph: 03 208 9244
