Replacing lenses
 

They do it all at once. My doctor called it the “Cadillac” of lense replacement. Corrected my cataracts and my farsightedness, as well as astigmatism.

It's important to mention the type of toric lenses implanted, and when you got them.

The Synergy lenses I got were first available in 2019 and have several improvements over previous toric lenses.

I learned this by reading medical journals.

$2000 an eye at St. Luke's and Dr. Ireland is wonderful!

We are having that procedure done in Michigan next week. $3000 less than Florida. That’s a lot of difference

I had cataract surgery in March at Ocala Eye. Corrected my astigmatism, inserted multi-focal lenses in each eye and corrected both my distance and close up vision. I do not need glasses anymore and I see everything clearly. The cost was $3300/eye and well worth the cost. Ocala Eye is excellent, and I have been with them for 23 years.

it depends, If you do not have an astigmatism, the cataract surgery will correct your distance vision. Then you will only need reading glasses, which are dirt cheap.
If you have a mild astigmatism, you pay lots of money and don't need glasses for distance. If you have a stong astigmatism, like mine, don't waste your money. you will still need glasses for both near and far. Get all the data first. I used St. Lukes. great care and they explained it all.

Good advice.

One other advantage of the VA (for me and other vets) is that the ophthalmologist hasn't got a motive interest in talking you into the surgery. In fact, they are booked solid and prefer to not do any surgeries that are not to improve your quality of life. Lots of exams, interviews, and discussions of what to expect and why. In my case, I had reached the point where I could barely drive during the day because of glare. And night time was pretty much out of the question.

Following the surgery, my vision was 20/15 and settled down to 20/20 to 20/25 a few months later. But, more importantly, it completely eliminated the glare so I can drive during the day now, and at night.

If your quality of life is impacted, you should discuss what to expect with your ophthalmologist.

They now have multi focal cataract replacement lenses. They are great, you don’t need glasses for distance reading or in between. A number of years ago we had Eyes at The Villages do it for about $3000 per eye beyond what Medicare pays. Lots of drops post surgery but we’ll worth it. My wife and I would highly recommend the multifocal lenses.

He may be referring to insertion of a special lens during the cataract surgery. I had 3 choices during my cataract surgery and paid $600 extra for the 'deluxe'.

Which doctor did you use?

The newest version of an implantable lens is the new adjustable lens just being released. It allows the Dr to adjust the lens up to three times to "tweak" it to your personal preferences. The tweaking is done using a laser in the Docs office after surgery.

Interesting the surgeon did not mention it to me.

LALs (Light adjustable lenses) were introduced in 2017 in the US.

LALs are adjusted by UV light. It can take up to 3 or 4 visits (adjustments) after the surgery to get adjusted accurately. They are not perfect but have a higher rate of 92% reaching 20/25 than non-adjustable.

LALs are not multi-focus, meaning they can only be adjusted to a single range - either near or distant or "name your range". If you want multifocal you need regular lenses.


The only "shortcoming" I could find is that not everyone can get them. You need to be able to be dilated to 7mm for the best adjustment. Some people can only be dilated to 5mm to 6mm. So, definitely, something to discuss with your ophthalmologist.

Looks like a good advancement in lens implants. Thanks for the reference.