Premium Lens Implants for Refractive Lens Exchange or Cataract Surgery.
Today, there are many different artificial intraocular lens implants (IOL) options available. Many of these implants, known as a “Premium Lens”, provide a wider range of vision compared to a standard monofocal lens so they can improve your vision at near, intermediate and distance, much like the natural lens you were born with.
These Premium Lens can be either “multifocal” or “extended depth of focus”. The former if they have multiple focal points rather than single focus, or the latter where they have a broader range of continuous focus. “Extended depth of focus” is the latest optical design of Premium Lens.
Most patients who choose these Premium Lens do so because they prefer a broader range of vision without the use of glasses for the majority of their day. Overall, this means that cataract surgery, as well as improving your vision, is also an opportunity to correct your glasses prescription and the frequency that you will need to use glasses afterwards.
Almost all of these advanced optical design lens implants (Premium Lens) are not available on the NHS due to cost. Further, not all eye surgeons who work privately specialise in implanting these lens. Mr Alex Day is a specialist cataract and refractive surgeon and offers all lens types to his patients based on their individual visual requirements. Mr Alex Day is able to advise on which lens is most suitable following a consultation which will include a detailed eye examination and measurements of the eye.
Prior to your consultation it is worth thinking carefully about the sort of tasks you use your eyes for on a regular daily basis and how well glasses have worked for you until now.
When we use our eyes we can divide visual tasks into four broad categories:
Far vision: this covers tasks and activities beyond 6 metres or so and includes driving, getting around generally, recognising friends across the street, walking a dog, watching TV, theatre and cinema.
Intermediate vision: is used for tasks at about 1 metre. This includes most social interaction, computer work, cooking, reading music and some sports.
Near vision: this is for activities performed at approximately 40-60 cm such as reading a menu or magazine, using a laptop or ipad and using a mobile phone.
Fine near vision: this is for vision at closer than 30-40 cm and includes some handicrafts or reading very small print (including small fonts on a mobile phone), or that needed for certain occupations such as jewellery makers.
Most people, by the time they need cataract surgery, have started to need to wear glasses for reading and other near tasks such as computer use even if they don’t need them for distance.
One lens implant may suit you better than another depending on your personal balance of how you use your eyes at the various distances. This will also change with age so it is worth taking some time to consider all the options so you can decide on a lens implant not just for now, but for the decades ahead.
Overall, most Premium Lens will provide three of the four distance categories above. Most people would choose far vision through to near vision and accept that glasses will still be needed for fine near vision tasks. Despite the latest lens advances, there is no lens implant that gives every person perfect vision at all distances or vision similar to that your natural lens gave you in your twenties or thirties.