Cataract Surgery to Improve Vision Now Routine
Cataract Surgery to Improve Vision Now Routine
Before 1949, if your vision started to deteriorate because of cataracts, you had to either wear the highest level of reading glasses you could find, seek out the brightest light or resign yourself to increasing blindness. But that year, surgeons at a hospital in London inserted the first lens into a patient’s eye with cataracts. Ever since, cataract surgery has become the cure for people whose eyesight has deteriorated because of a cloudy lens.Cataracts are part of the aging process, as our eye lenses become less transparent, less resilient and often thicker. Half of the population over 80 has cataracts. A cataract interferes with the retina’s ability to convert light into signals that are sent to the brain. At the start of cataracts, which develop slowly, things look blurred. When the condition becomes bad enough that it interferes with your daily life, your ophthalmologist can replace your cloudy natural lens with a clear artificial lens called an intraocular lens (IOL). Made of plastic, acrylic or silicone, the IOL becomes a permanent part of your eye.The cataract operation has become so commonplace that surgeons do it on an outpatient basis in as quickly as 15 minutes. Normal sight returns within several days. Increasingly, the question to ask is not “should I get cataract surgery?” but “what kind of lenses do I want?”
Types of Lenses
There are basically two types of cataract lenses: monofocal and multifocal. Monofocal is the standard, with a single focus usually set for middle or distance vision. For fixed-focus monofocal lenses, the surgeon fits one eye with a lens for distance vision and the other for near vision. The multifocal lens is similar to the progressive lens used in eyeglasses, with near, intermediate and distance vision available.Here are points to consider when making a decision:
- Monofocals usually provide better intermediate vision (making it easier to see your computer screen, for example). Because of this, you might need to add a pair of eyeglasses for both near and distance vision. With multifocals, you will likely need only one pair of glasses, if any, to correct for eye weaknesses. In one survey of post-surgery cataract patients, 71 percent of multifocal patients users didn’t require glasses post-surgery, compared to only 26 percent for monofocal.
- With monofocals, you can alter your vision with different strengths of glasses, while with multifocals, you can’t take one lens away, because the lenses are part of the multifocal.
- Some people who got multifocals complained of disturbing visual symptoms, including halos or glare (known as dysphotopsia). Multifocal lens users can’t see contrasts as easily as the other group and may be unable to see details. This can be distracting and especially harmful when driving.
- People with monofocals have expressed more satisfaction about their lenses than have those with multifocals.
- Insurance typically covers monofocal lenses but not multifocals. Medicare covers your costs for monofocals if you test below a certain level of acuity or clarity. Private insurance plans may have similar vision requirements.
After the Surgery
Doctors say that one of the most important actions cataract patients can take to avoid post-surgery complications is to use the prescribed eye drops. These consist of three types: antibiotic to prevent infections, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and steroid to reduce and eliminate inflammation. You will need to apply the eye drops several times a day. Typically, patients start using the antibiotic drops a few days before surgery and afterward for about a week, and the anti-inflammatory drops for three to six weeks or longer in some cases.Source: http://blog.csa.us/2017/01/cataract-surgery-to-improve-vision.html Image courtesy of klakung1 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net