Once, reading glasses were the sign of wisdom in older age, worn by headmasters, doctors and the judiciary to assist when studying and to peer over for added gravitas.

But today’s fifty and sixtysomethings, faced with ageing in a youth-obsessed age, are increasingly consigning reading glasses to their cases and opting for lens implants.

According to the latest research, optical advances and the vanity of the baby-boomer generation has resulted in a 40 per cent global increase in lens implants for presbyopia — the age-related deterioration of sight most commonly associated with reading vision — last year alone. Audits from clinics around Britain suggest a doubling or even tripling of the number of procedures in the past few years.

Intraocular lenses, known as IOLs, are plastic implants used to replace the eye’s natural crystalline lens and enhance its optical power. Traditionally they have been used to improve sight after the removal of cataracts, and more recently to tackle problems with distance vision.

But now IOLs developed to address problems with long-sightedness are being used in increasing numbers by middle-aged people who are increasingly keen to throw off their reading glasses. The implants also remove the need for cataract operations.

Sheraz Daya, consultant ophthalmologist at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex, said that presbyopic lens implants — multifocal or flexible, allowing the eye to focus on both close and distant objects — now accounted for 220 patients a year at the hospital’s Centre for Sight. In 2005, Mr Daya carried out only 80 of the operations.

“The decision these people are taking to have implants is about function and appearance,” Mr Daya said.

“It is a nuisance having to rely on glasses all the time. We have the active elderly now, as opposed to the elderly, and it is a different group altogether. They feel young and they want to be young.”

He added that with a large hub of baby-boomers now in their fifties, the use of IOLs in cataract surgery, which accounts for 300,000 NHS operations each year, would be considerable in years to come. But he added that thousands of people in this age group were now opting for corrective — and pre-emptive — surgery years earlier.

At present the latest IOLs are available only in private practice, normally at a cost of between £2,500 and £3,000 per eye. However, the recent decision by the Department of Health to allow NHS cancer patients the right to pay “top-up” fees for extra private medical care could increase pressure for NHS contributions. How patients pay for the treatment is likely to come under scrutiny in the future after the Department of Health’s decision.

Milind Pande, a member of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ Refractive Surgery Committee, said that his clinic had also experienced a rise in numbers. Five years ago he carried out only about 50 presbyopic implants a year, which were now up to more than 200. “The reason people used to tolerate reading glasses is because there was no choice. There were no surgical operations. But now those options are available,” he said.

“Why shoud anyone wait until they get a cataract? This way they can enjoy vision at all distances and for many, in effect, they are bringing forward an operation that they will have to have in their lifetime anyway.”

The surgery, which lasts less than 30 minutes, involves the extraction of the eye’s lens in a process similar to cataract surgery.

The patient receives local anaesthesia via eye drops and then a small incision is made in the eye to allow for the removal of the old lens, which is broken up with ultrasound. The incision is then extended — to about two and a half millimetres — to allow the new lens to be inserted. It unfurls in the eye, and is moved into place.

According to MarketScope, the industry analyst, about 420,000 presbyopia-correcting IOLs were implanted around the world last year, up from about 301,000 in 2007.

Mr Pande, who runs the Vision Surgery and Research Centre in Hull, East Yorkshire, said that IOLs accounted for more than 80 per cent of the operations that he carried out for people over the age of 45, up from 40 per cent in 2004. Laser eye surgery, which is also a growth sector, was now more commonly used in younger generations, he added.

Tayo Akingbehin, who runs a series of Eyesight clinics in the North of England, said that demand for presbyopic IOLs had trebled in five years and doubled since 2007.

The deterioration of sight with age involves the stiffening of the eye’s natural crystalline lens, which loses the suppleness that allows it to focus. Studies have also suggested that changes in the curvature of the lens, owing to loss of power of the ciliary muscles, may be responsible. Presbyopia can then lead to cataracts, which affect millions of people by their seventies.

The ophthalmologists said that any surgery involved risks and that the benefits needed to weighed up on a patient-by-patient basis. Side-effects of an IOL implant are minimal, with fewer than 1 per cent of patients experiencing reduced vision after surgery. Problems are normally linked to infection after surgery, retinal detachment or swelling in the back of the eye.

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club