What to Expect: Your Eyes During High School and College (16-24)

Ages 16-24 is a dynamic time for your eyes.

For many who have already been prescribed glasses for nearsightedness, the prescription will continue to increase slowly into the early 20's.

This is also a time when a first prescription will become necessary for glasses or contact lenses.

Students spend a lot of time studying, reading, and looking at digital devices which can cause dry eye and computer vision fatigue.  

This is also a time when people are active and engage all types of sports that we have to offer in Santa Cruz.

For the active person, this great time to consider contact lenses. There are contact lenses for almost any prescription at this time, and most of them are daily disposable, so if you are spending time swimming or surfing, there is no worry about contamination. Clear contacts with UV protection are also available for water sports.

After the prescription settles down in the early 20's, LASIK is also a consideration. This form of refractive eye surgery has been optimized using wavefront technology so most people no longer notice increased glare at night and the vision is often better than it was with contact lenses.  

In the early to mid 20's, the prescription generally starts a period of stability that often does not change significantly until age 40 when people start to notice difficulty reading.  Read further to see what else to consider during this time of comparatively stable vision.