Farsighted Eye - Can see far.

- Also known as "Hyperopia."
- See things better at distance.
- Images is focused behind the retina.
- The eye or some component of the eye might be too flat or too short.

Can it be fixed? What are the fixes?
It depends on the amount and age of the patient. If, for example, a child is symptom-free and they have a small amounts of farsighted-ness we may leave it uncorrected.  If however, symptoms appear or the amount changes we can correct this with glasses, soft and RGP (hard) contacts, and laser surgery. 

Nearsighted Eye - Can see near.

- Also known as "Myopia."
- See things better at near.
- Images is focused in front of the retina.
- The eye or some component of the eye might be too steep or too long. 

Can it be fixed? What are the fixes?
Yes, generally as you are growing up your prescription might get "a little worse." However in some rare cases people have "progressive myopia" which is generally due to a genetic factors. You can also have "functional myopia"  at any age to stress responses to close tasks such as reading, computer use, etc. Fixes include: glasses, soft and RGP (hard) contact lenses, and surgery (LASIK, lens replacement, etc).

Astigmatism - Stuck in the middle.

- Also known as having "cylinder" or a "toric" prescription.
- Difficulty with distance and near.
- Part of the image is focused in front of the retina while the other part behind.
- The eye or some component of the eye might have unequal curves or shapes.

Can it be fixed? What are the fixes?
If the eyeball, lens, or cornea is not perfectly round a person may have astigmatism. In fact, 85-90% off all prescriptions show some amount of astigmatism. This can occur with being farsighted, nearsighted or alone. Uncorrected astigmatism generally causes blurred and distorted vision. Astigmatism causes annoying problems such as; tiled or distorted objects, eyestrain, headaches, eye fatigue, sensitivity to light, and poor visual concentration. 

Presbyopia - Ahh the dreaded "bifocals"

- Near or reading vision becomes difficult
- Start around age 40 for everyone
- Hyperopic or farsighted people will notice it first
- Nearsighted people can remove glasses for sometime

Can it be fixed? What are the fixes?
Presbyopia my seem sudden but actually occurs over a few years. One misunderstanding is presbyopia is weakening of the eye muscles but really it is loss of elasticity of the lens in the eye. Presbyopia constantly changes and you will require periodic years updates. As we age, the lens gets weaker requiring us to wear stronger glasses. As noted above, wearing correction for presbyopia does not cause your eyes to weaken, that will happen regardless. Fixes include, bifocals, trifocals, progressive addition lenses (no-line), and now new surgical lens implants.