Presbyopia.

The need for bifocals causes more angst, fear, depression, denial, searching for alternatives, and needless self-pity than any other benign intervention in all of medicine. To many, this is the first sign they are on the other side of the hill of life. I will try to explain, with a minimum of numbers and equations, what presbyopia is and how it is managed (and perhaps even cured in the near future) in an understandable way. I will also present a few clinical situations which the primary care physician often meets. I suspect many of you are already wearing bifocals or are delaying the acquisition of them.