Written by Gangnam Brand Eye Clinic
2025.02.20
There is a common belief that having vision correction surgeries such as LASIK, LASEK, or SMILE LASIK can accelerate the onset of presbyopia. Some people occasionally ask whether this is true or not.
LASIK is a surgery that reshapes the cornea using a laser to change the eye's refractive power, and it has no direct connection to presbyopia. However, in very rare cases, if someone undergoes vision correction surgery like LASIK in their middle age and experiences improved distance vision, they may notice a more pronounced difficulty seeing nearby objects, which is a typical symptom of presbyopia.
Presbyopia usually starts in the mid-40s and is closely related to aging. It occurs when the lens, located inside the eye, becomes stiffer and loses its elasticity, reducing its ability to focus on close objects. When we are younger, the ciliary body and lens are very elastic, allowing the lens to thicken when focusing on nearby objects, increasing its refractive power and enabling clear vision. However, as we age, the lens loses its elasticity and thickens, so when trying to focus on nearby objects, the lens doesn't become thick enough to increase its refractive power. As a result, distant objects remain clear, but close objects appear blurry. This is a natural phenomenon experienced by most people as they enter middle age and is unrelated to vision correction surgery.
For individuals with myopia, their focus is naturally set for close objects, making distant objects appear blurry. This is why they need glasses for distance vision but not for close-up tasks. Myopia can actually delay the onset of presbyopia. However, when vision correction surgery is performed to correct myopia, distant objects become clearer, which may reveal the underlying symptoms of presbyopia. This is likely why some people believe that having LASIK leads to presbyopia. However, LASIK, LASEK, and other vision correction surgeries do not accelerate or cause presbyopia.
There is also a belief that vision correction surgery can cause cataracts to develop faster, but this is not supported by medical evidence. Generally, cataracts occur as a result of the lens becoming cloudy with age, causing blurry vision as if looking through fog. This condition is not influenced by the state of the cornea. As mentioned earlier, vision correction surgeries, such as LASIK, LASEK, and SMILE LASIK, involve reshaping the corneal epithelium with a laser, while both presbyopia and cataracts are related to issues with the lens, which is in a completely different part of the eye. If someone who has undergone LASIK, LASEK, or SMILE LASIK eventually develops cataracts later in life, there will be no issues with cataract surgery. The cataract can be resolved by removing the aging lens and replacing it with a new artificial lens.
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