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Healthy Seniors: FDA approves eye drops to help age related blurry vision

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Instead of reaching for the reading glasses, some people are now reaching for eye drops.

"It's very exciting to finally have something come to market that's FDA-approved that we can use and that we are seeing excellent results with," says Dr. Richard Davidson, Ophthalmologist, UCHealth. "We've been waiting for decades to try and give people great distance but still maintain some near vision and that's what happens with these drops."

The new eye drops are called Vuity and they were recently approved by the FDA. They could replace reading glasses for millions of Americans who have age-related blurry vision.

"So the drops work by constricting the pupil," says Dr. Davidson. "The pupil is the iris and the color part of your eye and by constricting the pupil ever so slightly it gives you a more extended depth of focus or bigger range of vision up close."

Dr. Davidson says the new medicine begins working in about 15 minutes and provides sharper vision for five to six hours.

"They can be used as needed so you don't have to use them every day, but use them when you want to use them," says Dr. Davidson. "But for people who are using them, it's one drop per eye once a day."

While the drops are still very new, Dr. Davidson says many of his patients are seeing results.

"This is just the beginning and it's the first product and it's only going to get better from here," says Dr. Davidson. "I think what's going to happen is I hope over time more patients will be candidates for this type of technology and we will be less depended on glasses and contacts for reading and computers as time goes on."

A good candidate for Vuity is someone with good distance already, or someone who wears contacts to correct that. It's prescription-only and is not currently covered by insurance. A bottle of Vuity costs about $80 for a one-month supply. Some people have side effects including headaches, redness, and eye irritation.

Article Topic Follows: Health

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Brynn Carman

Brynn is an anchor on Good Morning Colorado. Learn more about Brynn here.

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