Member Talk with Dr. Armando Garcia

A lifetime of good eyesight. Myth or fact?

Being "condemned" to wear glasses, even after a certain age, was an evidence that sooner or later any of us would personally witness. Starting in the 80s of the last century, the extraordinary development of LASERs with medical application, and specifically with ocular application, allowed most people with myopia and other refractive problems to be effectively corrected. As a result, they make it possible to regain good vision without the use of glasses or contact lenses. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have already benefited from these technologies over the past decades to such an extent that the possibility of correcting myopia, astigmatism and other refractive errors has become "commonplace". However, there was still no answer to the inevitability of wearing glasses for near vision after a certain age in our lives. In addition, wearing glasses for near vision after a certain age is not only seen as an addiction, but also as a "mark of the passing of the years" that many want to counteract... What was still an inevitability 25 years ago, the use of glasses to see well from the age of 45 to 55, can now be corrected safely and in most cases has become the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the developed world. Still, a significant part of the population, and even some less up-to-date medical professionals, are unaware of the possibility of this correction. At the beginning of the present millennium, around 2003 and 2004, the first surgical techniques were consolidated, which allow, in an effective, lasting and safe way, to counteract the inevitability of wearing glasses to see close up after a certain age. Armando Garcia, ophthalmologist, belongs to the select group of surgeons who pioneered this surgery in Portugal and, since 2004, has treated several thousand cases. 

The goal is to develop a conversation about this topic, in a non-technical language, where interactivity with the audience is fundamental, in order to address issues related to effectiveness, safety, expectations, myths and truths about the possibility of not wearing glasses anymore, those that seemed to be inevitable after a certain age.