Bifocal 50 00
Annual Eye Exam ? for those who are in their early 40's?
I'm 42 and had my annual exam at the optometrist today. For 7-yrs my vision has been stable, I wear contacts but today there was a slight change, it went a half from 5:50-6:00, not much, the doctor said that when you get older your distance usually goes down in numbers not up, so he then told me that catarats, glaucoma, diabetes could cause the change, he examined me and said everything looks fine, ordered me a trial lens for the stronger lens which he said may be great for the distance but not the reading, so I mayb have to wear bifocals. ?, he didn't dialate my eyes, said it isn't alwasy necessary, should I go to an opthamologist? Do you have to alwasy get your eyes dialated? Did any of you who wear contacts that are in your early 40's have an increase in your distance vision as you got older? I'm very confused about it all, I thought as you got older your vision started changing when you hit 40, Thanks much.
No, it not necessary to dilate you eyes for most exams. Dilation is usually performed for small kids because their eyes are so little it's hard for a doctor to see and for people who have various eye diseases where a doctor needs to take a really good look inside. Your distance and reading vision can both change as you get older. The distance probably won't change very much, just a few diopters unless you have cataracts. Ophthalmologists really specialize in eye diseases so if you optometrist said everything was fine and you don't feel any discomfort then there is no reason for a second opinion.