How Vision Changes With Age

Smiling young woman at a library

Vision in our teen years

As a teen, our vision generally remains quite good. However, participating in competitive sports and having active lifestyles can be why some start to wear contact lenses. With this comes all the commensurate risks and expenses of contacts.

While it is imperative to determine that a person’s vision is developmentally-stable enough for corrective surgery, young people enjoy the greatest cost benefit of investing in life without glasses and contacts.


Smiling younger man

Vision in our 20s and 30s

In our 20s and 30s, our vision is almost always stable enough to benefit from corrective eye surgery. Deciding at an early age to have a life without glasses and contacts is often a very economical decision, allowing us to benefit from a lifetime of clear vision.


Smiling middle-aged woman with trees in the background

Vision in our 40s and 50s

As we start to get older, our eyes start to get drier. This makes contact lenses less comfortable to wear. Also during this time, our natural lens begins to get more rigid and less able to help focus our vision. The need for reading glasses becomes apparent, as things at a near distance start to become blurry.


Smiling older man outside

Vision in our 60s and up

As we continue to age, we start to notice changes in both the type of eyeglasses we need (bifocals, reading glasses, etc.) as well as the quality of our vision (even if we had LASIK early in life).

This is due to the natural hardening of the human lens, which is actually the early stages of cataract formation. No one is immune to cataracts. It is a natural aging phenomenon. The human lens becomes more rigid with age and also yellows very gradually over time. These changes are slow to develop and often go unnoticed for years. The yellowing of the lens causes a reduction of light entering into the eye, leaving us feeling a need for more light…especially in a reading situation.

When the symptoms are significant enough from the progression of yellowing, our human lens can be replaced with a new intraocular lens (IOL). The cataract will never come back!


Smiling woman at a flower shop

A Note to Patients With Astigmatism

If there’s a single question we receive most frequently at our refractive center, it’s this: “Can I still experience life-changing benefits of corrective eye surgery”?

In a word, yes.

You can and it’s our hope that you let us be a part of the journey.

An astigmatism is a condition in which the curvature of your cornea is uneven. While this condition should be treated, it does not disqualify you as a candidate for the vision correction procedures offered at Inland Eye Specialists.

Having an astigmatism does not disqualify you from experiencing the transformative power of corrective eye surgery.

Next steps

Our doctors can assess whether or not you have an astigmatism as well as how the condition could affect your particular procedure.

Patient Portal
Ways to Pay
Request an Appointment
888-57-FOCUS
facebook youtube twitter

Our locations

521 East Elder Street
Suite 102
Fallbrook, CA 92028
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8am-5pm
Sat & Sun: CLOSED
3953 West Stetson Avenue
Hemet, CA 92545
Hours
Mon - Fri: 8am-5pm
Sat & Sun: CLOSED
27168 Newport Road
Suite 4
Menifee, CA 92584
Hours
Mon: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tues: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Wed: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Thurs: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sat & Sun: Closed
25395 Hancock Avenue
Suite 100
Murrieta, CA 92562
Hours
Mon - Fri: 8am – 5pm
Sat & Sun: CLOSED
25460 Medical Center Drive
Suite 103
Murrieta, CA 92562
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8am-5pm
Sat & Sun: CLOSED
31950 Temecula Parkway
Suite B-7
Temecula, CA 92592
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8am-5pm
Sat: 8am-12pm
16615 Dove Canyon Road
Suite 105
San Diego, CA 92127
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8am-5pm
Sat: 8am-12pm
Sun: CLOSED
3953 W Stetson Ave
Hemet, CA 92545, USA
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm