My husband had cataract surgery with light adjustable lenses this past summer. The lens that is used is adjusted using UV light after the surgery heals. They can adjust for near vision, far vision and astigmatism. He had 3 adjustments to one eye and 4 adjustments to the other. They do some vision tests before each adjustment to determine what needs to be tweaked. It took a few days after each adjustment for it to “settle in”. After the adjustments there is a final procedure to “lock it in”.
He can’t believe how good his vision is now. He has had glasses since grade school and now doesn’t need glasses at all.
It wasn’t much more expensive than the toric/progressive type lenses, even with all the followup visits for the adjustments.
My cateract surgery was in 2019, I think. I am very happy with the results. I love my much thinner glasses, and I don’t need anything for reading at all. I probably could drive without my glasses, but I don’t see any reason to.
The biggest bonus in addition to the vision improvement….color brightness and clarity!
Light adjustable lenses do sound very exciting. And my ophthalmologist’s practice is advertising them, with a picture of my doctor included. Looks like the cost should be comparable to my Invisilign and brow lifts in the last few years. So I’ll see what is what in January.
It is indeed -1.50, not -150. Since the later is impossible, in a human eye at least, the decimal is assumed.
That is only the sphere though, the reference meridian if you will. The other meridian is -1.75 more, or -3.25.
For the purposes of understanding surgical expectations the spherical equivalent is used. In this case, -2.375. Since no one refracts to eighths of a diopter, I rounded down to -2.25, or more easily understood as a focal length of 17.5”.
@Marilyn, if you wanted an outcome close to where you’re at and are willing to wear glasses for TV and driving, I’d shoot for -2.00 with a toric IOL.
If you want the best distance vision, you’ll give up some near.
OP here. I just had my second eye done yesterday and my vision is now officially GREAT! Who knew the world was so bright?! It’s sort of like the difference between sitting in a room lit by a lamp with a dim incandescent bulb and one lit by a strong LED bulb. Not just lighter, but brighter.
I was farsighted with bad astigmatism so I chose toric lenses corrected for distance. Would have loved to get light-adjusted lenses but I wasn’t a good candidate for them.
I was sort of adjusting to having my two eyes focus differently for the past 2 weeks but it made me a little dizzy. I had bought a couple of drugstore readers after having the first eye done, one for the computer and one for reading close up, but neither one was the right strength for me and I was continually switching between them, taking them off, putting them on… really a PITA after wearing progressives for everything for the past ~25 years. I knew I should wait until both eyes were fixed but I couldn’t go that long without reading.
My doctor told me last week what reader strength I should have gotten so I ordered a pair of Clics online. Readers – CliC Eyewear
They’re the ones that split in the middle and click together with a magnet so you can wear them around your neck when they’re not up there on your face. I’m already loving them and plan to get a second pair. Oh, and it’s so nice to be able to buy sunglasses off the rack!
I wonder if any of the experts here can address a very generic, hypothetical question. I had lasik about 20-25 years ago and have been very successfully living with monovision, able to read all but the smallest print without glasses, have “driving glasses” but they are only a tiny improvement, pretty sure I could pass the exam without them. Haven’t gotten to the point of consulting about cataracts but it’s probably coming.
Is there an outcome from cataract surgery that would leave me basically where I am now - only needing glasses for the most extreme situations, keeping the mono vision I have now?
Yes, replicate the monovision. The calculations are a little tougher though on a LASIK cornea. Find a reputable high volume cataract surgeon who does LASIK. They should be fully up to speed on the compensations.
