If you can see objects at a distance clearly but have trouble focusing well on objects close up, you may be farsighted. Your eye care practitioner may refer to farsightedness as longsightedness, or by its medical names, hypermetropia or hyperopia. Hypermetropia causes the eyes to exert extra effort to see close up. After viewing nearby objects for an extended period, you may experience blurred vision, headaches and eyestrain. Children who are farsighted may find reading difficult. Hypermetropia is not a disease, nor does it mean that you have "bad eyes." It simply means that you have a variation in the shape of your eyeball. The degree of variation will determine whether or not you will need corrective lenses.

What causes farsightedness?

Hypermetropia most commonly occurs because the eyeball is too short; that is, shorter from front to back than is normal. In some cases, hypermetropia may be caused by the cornea having too little curvature. Exactly why eyeball shape varies is not known, but the tendency for farsightedness is inherited. Other factors may be involved too, but to a lesser degree than heredity.