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If you’re tired of wearing glasses but are not a candidate for LASIK, there are other vision correction solutions to explore. Refractive lens exchange is probably the most stable procedure available. People best suited for this option are generally over 40 and are not considered good candidates for LASIK.

Refractive lens exchange improves vision by replacing your natural lens with a new intraocular lens, or IOL, selected to give you the best possible vision for your needs. This is the same procedure used when removing a cataract but in that case the natural lens is cloudy.

Like the lens of a camera, which focuses images sharply on the film, the eye’s lens focuses light and images on the retina at the back of your eye. At age 40, people often begin to lose the ability to focus up close. The natural lens becomes less flexible, and no longer adjusts as well when changing its focus from distant to near vision. Reading glasses or bifocals are needed for close work.

Some IOLs used in clear lens extraction have a fixed focal length. If you select this type of lens, you have two choices. You may elect to have your new lens provide sharp distance vision for driving, golf and similar activities. Or you may want improved near vision for reading, computer work and other close activities.

A second alternative for patients who do not want reading glasses following surgery is called monovision. This means using one eye for distance and the other for near vision. A single-focus IOL is implanted in both eyes, however the patient’s dominant eye is corrected for distance and the non-dominant eye is corrected for near vision.

A final option is a special type of IOL that allows the eye to focus on objects both up close and far away. Several types of these multifocal and accommodative IOLs are now being used by surgeons to correct presbyopia, a common condition associated with aging in which people have difficulty seeing objects close-up. To help us determine which is the best lens for you please take you IOL questionnaire

Before the lens exchange procedure, your eye is carefully measured using state-of-the-art ultrasound instruments. These measurements are entered into a sophisticated formula to calculate the exact corrective power of your new intraocular lens.

Most patients are able to go back to their normal activities the very next day. For further information or to make an appointment for a free consultation, please call 591-9911.

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