A good way to reduce your dependence on glasses

Multifocal intraocular lenses have a very high success rate for achieving eyesight improvement and give you a good chance of not needing glasses after surgery. A large majority of patients report either never or only occasionally needing to wear glasses after surgery.

As with all surgery, patients with additional health conditions should ask their doctor what they can reasonably expect in their specific case.

When you may need glasses

It may take several weeks to several months for you to reach your best eyesight improvement. And it is usually recommended to have surgery on both eyes within a few weeks time, so the brain does not need to adjust to unbalanced vision while only one eye has a corrected lens.

There is a chance you may need glasses for some tasks even after you adjust. For example, some patients need glasses to:

• Read fine print
• See more clearly in low light conditions
• Obtain the best vision at intermediate distances, like at the computer

Possible night vision symptoms

As your brain adjusts to the new visual information from the multifocal IOL, you may notice some rings around lights at night, which usually get better in time and diminish within six months or so.

Most patients say these symptoms are not noticeable or bothersome and rarely affect their day or night activities.

A small number of patients have night vision symptoms on an ongoing basis after lens replacement surgery. Even when this occurs, these symptoms rarely affect tasks such as night driving. However, in rare instances, multifocal IOLs may make night driving more challenging than with standard or accommodative IOLs.

A good way to reduce your dependence on glasses

Accommodative IOLs give you an excellent quality of vision and a very good chance of only occasionally needing glasses to fine-tune your distance or near vision. A large majority of patients report enough eyesight improvement that they are able to perform most daily functions without glasses.

As with all surgery, patients with additional health conditions should ask their doctor what clarity of vision they can reasonably expect in their specific case.

When you may need glasses

Accommodative IOLs are technically a single-focus lenses, which can give you excellent distance vision right away. In order to gain clear vision of near objects, however, your eye muscles need to strengthen so they can make the lens move (or flex) correctly. You will need reading glasses for close vision in the meantime.

To retrain your eye muscles for maximum eyesight improvement, challenge yourself with visual activities at close range starting a week after surgery. It may take six months to a year to fully develop your near vision potential, but the more your eyes and brain practice, the better your near vision can get.

If a patient’s eye muscles are unable to adjust, accommodative IOLs still deliver clear distance and even intermediate vision. Reading glasses, however, may still be needed for close vision.

In general, you may need to use reading glasses for up close vision during more of the day than if you choose multifocal IOLs. But people with accommodative IOLs have less risk of experiencing night vision symptoms than those with multifocal IOLs.

Another way to reduce your dependence on glasses

With this technique for eyesight improvement, you can obtain both near and distance vision. If you use toric IOLs to achieve monovision, you can correct astigmatism at the same time.

As with all surgery, patients with additional health conditions should ask their doctor what clarity of vision they can reasonably expect in their specific case.

The adjustment process

For most people, the brain adjusts quickly to monovision. It joins the information from both eyes together so you can see near, intermediate and far objects clearly.

Some patients know they are good candidates for monovision because they’ve had it before, with LASIK or contact lenses. Those who have not experienced monovision before are recommended to try it in advance of surgery with special contact lenses, to confirm they will be able to adjust easily.

Possible follow-up if you choose toric IOLs

Because astigmatism is caused by an asymmetrical surface of the cornea, toric IOLs have asymmetrical powers of correction. Rarely, a toric IOL may shift its position as your eye heals. If this happens, you will need to have it realigned in a follow-up procedure in order to see clearly again.

Sometimes people with astigmatism may need additional procedures such as LASIK or limbal relaxing incisions to reach their best eyesight improvement.

The formulas used for calculating the power of the intraocular lenses (IOLs) used during lens replacement surgery are reasonably accurate, but not necessarily as precise as those used for computing advanced laser-based vision correction treatments.