When we remove a cataract we replace it with an artificial lens. Many patients ask us when we perform the surgery if we can help eliminate their need for glasses, and typically, we can do that. Our first priority is usually to give you good distance vision. Some patients are also interested in seeing well up close after surgery without glasses. To achieve that we have to use special premium implant lenses that can focus distance and near. 

During cataract surgery or lens replacement surgery, your eye care provider will replace your eye’s cloudy or inflexible lens with a new intraocular lens – an IOL. The goal of the IOL is to give you the best visual outcome based on your lifestyle and your eyes’ shape and health. While there are many IOL options, some, like the monofocal lens, will only correct vision at one distance and may require you to wear glasses at other distances. 

New Multifocal IOLs are now available, which can reduce the need for reading glasses after cataract, or lens replacement surgery. These lenses are designed to address the problem of presbyopia, in which people over the age of 40 begin to lose the ability to read, or see up close. In the past, when an artificial lens called an intraocular lens implant, or ‘IOL,’ was placed inside the eye during cataract or lens replacement surgery, it could only focus at a single distance. 

If you require cataract removal surgery, choosing the right lens implant is an important decision for you and your doctor. The lens implant selection is the basis for optimum vision enhancement post surgery, and lifestyle improvement. In the past, patients had limited lens implant options to meet their visual needs. Today’s lens technologies now offer optimum natural-vision with premium lenses. 

The cornea is the clear front window of the eye and should be perfectly round – like the shape of a door knob. Astigmatism means that the cornea is slightly oval in shape – like the back of a spoon. If the cornea has significant astigmatism, then details such as print or street signs will appear blurred without glasses. Eyeglasses optically correct this blur by compensating for the oval shape of the cornea. 

In the past, when an artificial lens, called an intraocular lens implant, or IOL, was placed inside the eye during cataract surgery or lens replacement surgery, it did not have any power of accommodation. These IOLs are called single focus IOLs, and allow an eye to see either far away, or close-up, but not both.