I just saw a commercial for this procedure, and I was wondering if any of you have gone through with it and/or have an opinion about it?
I haven’t gone through it, but just be aware that it’s basically cataract surgery with corrective lenses implanted, that you have to pay for out of pocket. Insurance won’t touch it. So quite expensive. With the same success rate as cataract surgery, which is pretty good.
My wife had this procedure several years ago including corrective lenses and has no regrets at all. She often says one of the best things about it is getting up in the morning and being able to see clearly without fumbling with her glasses. Her out-of-pocket was about $5,000 but this was before she was eligible for Medicare.
My wife also had this done–she pretty much couldn’t find her glasses without her glasses. Life changing.
I’m considering having this done. Glasses cannot correct cataracts.
But my natural lenses will be replaced by artificial ones with a fixed focus, and I have to choose the focal length (although I understand that it cannot be planned perfectly; there are error bars). I think I will opt for nearsighted vision, as that is what I am most used to, although I might make each eye different.
Any thoughts about this? The idea of fixed focus is not appealing, but I don’t have much choice unless I can turn back the clock.
There have been several recent threads about cataracts where people talk about the various multi-focal (or different focal lengths for each eye with or without some overlap) lenses they’ve gotten. I’m on my phone or I’d link to them. Seems like people are quite happy with them.
My sister just got these for her cataracts and loves them.
My (irrational?) fear is about the procedure itself, not the results. I can’t even put eye drops in, so the thought of being conscious while they slice my eyeball really bothers me. Tell me it isn’t so bad.
You get the numbing drops in your eyes and the stuff that makes you not care about anything in your arm. The procedure itself, if you have it done with laser or ultrasound, is very quick.
My wife had it done under general. Apparently the Valium made her agitated, and more made her even more agitated, at which point they gave up. I think we payed $7500, but it was a flat rate, and we didn’t pay any extra for the aborted attempt or the second successful surgery.
I had cataract surgery about four years ago. I was offered the variable lens option at the time, but it would have been twice as expensive. I had been wearing glasses since high school, and bi-focals for over thirty years after that, BUT I could still read without glasses, as long as the material was 12" in front of me. I was really scared about losing that ability, and at first even requested that the corrective lens be nearsighted. After much internal debate I convinced myself that a) the fear was irrational, and b) I’ve been wearing glassed to see all my life, it’s not that big a difference to wear glasses to read instead. At the last minute I requested 20/20 correction. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Yes, it is frustrating to need reading glasses but the trade off is that the whole world is crystal clear.
As for the procedure itself, I wore glasses my whole life because I, too, could not handle eyedrops and contact lenses were out of the question. You have to use eyedrops for something like six weeks after the operation. All I can say is, you get used to it. And I’m not going to lie, the procedure itself is nerve racking, but over quickly.
If I understand the OP, they are now offering this procedure without the medical necessity of say, cataracts. I don’t think it was always like that, (or maybe it’s that insurance will only cover it if it’s medically necessary.) After I had it done, my thoughts were, “This is the greatest thing in the world. Why do you have to wait until you’re half blind to have it done?”
I’ve had this done because I had cataracts.
I had glasses starting in 3rd grade, then contacts, then LAZIK, then I needed reading glasses. All of that is gone now. No reading glasses, nothing.
To say it’s life changing is an understatement.
And the surgery was easy peasy and fast.
Sorry for the length, but I thought you might prefer more detail in this subject.
I had this done as part of cataract surgery last May. As I’ve posted (whined) elsewhere on the Dope, the surgery on my left eye went disastrously wrong. After multiple procedures, I got the final surgery to repair that eye in November, resulting in an almost* complete recovery.
I have Medicare, but had to pay an additional $6000 out of pocket. The surgeries were back-to-back on successive days (right eye one day, left eye the next). The surgeon said my corrections for both focus and astigmatism were so extreme that perfection was impossible. He said he could get me 90% of the way, but I would still need slight correction afterward. I chose long-distance vision in both eyes, preferring to use reading glasses for close up.
The extraction of the old lens was done with a laser which (apparently) sliced it into tiny fragments and vacuumed out somehow. The insertion of the new lens took place on a different “table”, and was done manually by the surgeon. I was under “twilight” anesthesia, under the care of an anesthesiologist. The drugs cause some amnesia, so much of my memory about the procedure is from my daily journal. Apparently I could remember lots of details after arriving home, but they didn’t make it into long-term memory. FTR: it was absolutely and completely painless.
As to the OP’s question, the final results are mostly amazing, but there are a few unexpected problems.
The distance correction is better than promised. I have (approx.) 20/25 and 20/40 in left/right eyes. Weirdly enough, the damaged eye ended up with better focus. I can drive safely with no glasses at all, and can remove the corrective requirement from my driver’s license. But the “fixed focus” aspect is exactly that. With my original lenses, I could squint and contort enough to cause some focal change, even at my age. But not with the new ones. Without reading glasses I can’t read any small print, period. As a result, I wear bifocals now. The “upper” correction is slight and adds the small astigmatism correction. Lower is a +2.25 which makes reading easy. I have no problems with headaches, etc.
The world is brighter and more colorful, but there are drawbacks. The best description I have is the difference when a room goes from soft incandescent bulbs to super-bright fluorescents. The overall color (of everything) seems more blue-white now. Sunglasses are no longer optional.
Daytime vision is great, notwithstanding the requirement for sunglasses. If I drive 1000 miles away from home and lose my eyeglasses, I could safely drive home without them. The fixed focus leaves the truck’s dashboard blurry, but I can read the speedometer OK.
Night vision is better, with a few caveats. My eyes are more susceptible to what I’m calling “washout”. A bright light in the otherwise dark field tends to wash out my vision. Night driving in the city is about the same as before the surgery. It’s much improved on a country road at night though. The biggest problem with washout is doing close work in a dark region with bright light nearby. (For example: working on something underneath a vehicle where it’s relatively dark, but just to my left is bright daylight. It makes it really difficult to use a screwdriver or manipulate small parts)
Would I do it again? Assuming I could skip the left eye damage and subsequent 7 months with only one eye, yes. Now that I’m finally through the ordeal, I’m really much better off with the improved vision, and no longer totally reliant on eyeglasses.
*I still have a “missing” section of vision in my left eye. As though the circular field-of-view has a small masked region on the upper left. I didn’t want any more surgeries, and decided to manage with the small missing peripheral area.
Is “clear lens” one of the brand names of corrective replacement lens? Because I’ve been talking to an ophthalmologist about cataract surgery, and there are a lot of brands out there. They have a variety of trade-offs, and it’s worth thinking about which you’d like.
I did RLE last May. I was losing my ability to read without my glasses, and that was always my line for considering surgery.
It was easy peazy. I drove myself to my follow-up check the next morning.
I still have noticeable halos around bright lights in the distance at night - I’ve trained myself not to focus on oncoming headlights, for instance. I lost a little bit of distance acuity and a little bit of low light functionality. But I can read in bed comfortably without glasses, and I can drive without glasses. I very rarely will put reading glasses on for things like clipping my nails, but I don’t actually need them.
It’s similar in cost to Lasik.