Patients over the age of 40 may need or continue to use some form of reading glasses after LASIK because of a condition called presbyopia.

Presbyopia is a normal, age-related decline in near vision that occurs in many people around the age of 40 years old. It is natural process in which your natural lens loses its ability to bend. When this happens, you cannot read or do close-up activities such as threading a needle without using reading glasses - even if you have the LASIK procedure. This decline in near vision occurs regardless of whether or not you have LASIK.