For anyone with a reliance on glasses or contact lenses, the desire to return to the days of independent sight is strong. Despite the valuable aid that glasses provide, they can be tiring and troublesome. The answer to this is to get corrective eye surgery to finally remove the need for either.

Depending on the specific cause of reduced vision, there are a variety of options available, with laser eye surgery or refractive lens exchange, which are popular procedures that can vastly improve the quality of sight. Age is often a factor when consider any type of surgery. However, even with surgeries that involve the replacement of the natural lens with an improved synthetic one, such as clear lens exchange, the age of a mature patient is not important.

There are some conditions that influence the decision whether a procedure can take place or not. When it comes to the age of a patient, there is a general reluctance to carry out corrective eye procedures on patients up to 18 years of age. The reason for this is that the eye is continuing to develop at that age, and it is uncertain whether a procedure will hinder development or improve it.

Indeed, it is not even certain if the work done on the eye will remain effective at all. Generally, the youngest age most doctors will accept a patient is 21, though there are exceptions to this rule depending on the seriousness of a condition and the results of a series of tests.

When it comes to the other end of the age scale however, there is generally no problem. Many of the conditions that can be treated by surgery develop in people from 40 onwards, with some 65 per cent of people in their 60s and 70s developing cataracts, for example. But even the very elderly can take advantage of the procedures available.

The reason why is that by the time a person has reached the mid to late 20s the eye has developed fully and there is far less risk of it changing. Though there are risks, as is the case with every medical procedure, none of them are specifically enhanced by old age.

Nevertheless, doctors must make a full assessment of their prospective patient before any decision to undergo surgery can be made. In the case of LASIK laser eye surgery for example, which is the most common eye procedure today there are some restrictions as to who can have it. Wearers of high prescription glasses can have thin corneas or abnormal corneal curvature or very dry eyes and may not be able to undergo this surgery. High prescription glasses are a sign of extreme cases of shortsightedness or long-sightedness, both of which would require a large amount of corneal tissue to be removed. Understandably, this could make the surgery unsafe and therefore the doctor may be less inclined to carry out the procedure. Similarly, if a patient has thin corneas it would drastically increase the chance of the cornea weakening after surgery. Abnormal corneal curvature could be a sign that the cornea is already weak, which would suggest that serious complications would affect the patient after surgery.

Meanwhile, a patient with excessively dry eyes would be likely to experience some discomfort while recovering from the procedure. Typically, there would be some pain but since the nerves in the cornea are cut it means that the tear ducts are affected. Excessively dry eyes before surgery will likely result in an extreme burning sensation afterwards. The ability of the eyes to produce soothing tears ensures a high degree pain threshold, which a person with dry eyes would not be able to withstand.

Obviously, every surgeon has a responsibility to ensure the safety and comfort of his or her patient. It does not matter if the patient is looking for laser surgery or vision correction, the same ethics apply. Namely, that the well being of the patient always comes first.

For that reason assessments must be carried out, but the matter of age is not a particular concern. So, whether it is a woman in her 50s or a man in his 80s, corrective eye surgery is available while the chance to take advantage of clear lens exchange or cataract procedures to improve the quality of vision is a real possibility.