Latent Hyperopia

[Cathy35]

I have been to 2 doctors and have finally been given the diagnosis of latent hyperopia.  I  have been told in the past that I only need glasses for reading, which I didn't feel the need to wear most of the time. My new prescription is +1.00 SPH and +50 CYL for both eyes.  I was told that I should wear this whenever I am awake and my prescription will be increased in 6 weeks.  The doctor told me that it will be painful for a few weeks until my eyes adjust.  Does this sound correct?

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

I assume you are having some problems due to the latent hyperopia, such as eye strain or headaches.  If you truly have latent hyperopia you have two choices.  You can either just deal with it like you have in the past or  you can try to make yourself wear glasses to try to relieve some of the eyestrain.  There is no rule that you have to wear the glasses.  It is an opton for you to try if you are motivated to relieve some of your symptoms.  I think your doctor's method here seems reasonable.  I think it is reasonable for you to give it a try.  You may or may not find it helpful.  Hopefully you will have good results.

MJK MD

[OnlineVisitor]

I'm not sure what the two different prescriptions mean.  I can tell you that I have latent hyperopia and with a prescription of +1.00 in my right eye and +0.75 in my left eye.  I was instructed several months ago by my optometrist to do exactly what your optometrist told you - to wear +1.00 glasses all the time.  I can tell you that this will work intermittently at best.  It will help with near vision such as reading, but it will make distance vision slightly blurry and cause headaches.  

A much much better solution for me has been multifocal contact lenses - your optometrist will not suggest this right off the bat or perhaps even ever.  But a multifocal contact lens is like a progressive lens in eye glasses - the kind that correct both near and far vision.   But in our case, the prescription which I have is a multifocal contact lens that ranges from 0 to +1.25, which means that when I am doing near viewing I am enjoying a +1.25 correction, which is great for my latent hyperopia because it means my eyes are not compensating at all to view something, and at distance the contact lenses provide no correction - this is the 0 - which is great because at distance - such as driving - I do not need help with the latent hyperopia.  

Now, it's possible that for you wearing a +1.00 eyeglass all the time, as you have been directed to do, will not cause you any problems, but it might.  If it does, ask for a multifocal contact lens, or if you can afford it, a progressive lens eyeglass with 0 at the top and +1.00 at the bottom.  I hope this helps.  This is from months and months of visiting more than one doctor (like you) and dealing with this.  I am very happy with the multifocal contact lenses.  

I would suggest you press for the multifocal contact lenses - and understand that they may be reluctant to prescribe them because the conventional wisdom is that the eye muscles should be able to compensate for latent hyperopia at low levels without any prescription, but that's like walking around with your biceps flexed all day long - that's what your eyes are doing all day without a prescription, and a flat out +1.00 eyeglass simply did not work well enough for me.  Press for the multifocal contacts until they give them to you.