What You Should Know About Cataract Surgery

Cataract surgery is when you remove the clouded lens on the eye, once that it done it is replaced with a version that is synthetic and clear. This procedure used to require more than a couple days hospital stay with a long recovery period. With new studies and technology, it is now performed on patients resulting in outpatient care with local anesthesia and patients are able to return to their everyday lives within minimum days required. This surgery that is performed has a very high success rate and complications of having vision problems are considered non existent to relatively low for clients with cataracts, resulting in an easy decision to have the surgery. There are two more decisions that may be more difficult to make: when to get the surgery and what type of implant lens should the client get inserted into the eye. 

The main goal of this surgery is to have better function and vision. There are multiple things to think about when you are thinking of a lens to choose. Here are some things to consider:

Importance- For many people, they choose the monofocal implant as the best choice. It gives better vision contrast, making it better to drive and to do mostly any other activity. Also making it a nice choice for patients who have to have cataract surgery when being in a relatively young age, vision contrast is more likely to go away with age. Some people who get the monofocal implant lens still use glasses when reading or seeing far in the distance. Multifocal lenses are only a nice choice if the person will be doing work near the eyes and dislike the thought of using glasses and willing to accept clarity that is less than normal.

Price- Most of the time your insurance will cover the monofocal lenses but have the expectation to pay around $1,500 or more for each of the toric lens and around $3,000 each for any other specialized lenses.

Experience of the surgeon- Few people choose specialty lenses because they are more new and few people choose them. A lot of surgeons do not have the experience of placing them correctly. If you are thinking of one, find out the number of implants the surgeon you choose has performed.

Replacement Lenses Commonly Used

Cataract surgeries have grown, so you have the choice for your lenses. Here are the most widely used include the following:

Fixed-focus monofocal lenses.

This lense can help you see at a distance, but you’ll need reading glasses to see up close. Some clients who choose fixed monofocal lenses have only one eye fitted with the lens that gives close vision and the opposite eye is fitted with a distance lens. A combination such as this is monovision. When considering this lens, your surgeon will suggest that you get the monovision with contact lenses before the surgery to see how good you will adjust to this new combination. Monovision sometimes is not ideal for clients who require clean, detailed and crisp vision.

Monofocal lenses

A more newer choice, accommodating monofocal lenses, has the ability to shift from near or far based on the movement of the ciliary muscles your eyes, something similar to the younger eye. These lenses give middle vision and excellent distance but not so reliable for near vision. Eye exercises will help you get accustomed to them, but some people who receive these lenses still need glasses to read. 

Toric lenses

These specialized lenses are made for people with astigmatism. Toric lenses give a more focused vision at a single distance correcting the astigmatism, so you may not need distance glasses afterwards.
Multifocal lenses

Like the progressive or bifocal lenses that are in glasses, multifocal lenses have other areas that specially designed for distance and near vision. The brain and eye use each other to figure out the part of the lens to use. Multifocal lenses also have a negative to them, bright light can be distorted, causing more glare at night.