Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Multifocal lenses sharpen one’s focus

These relatively new lenses can help correct both short- and long-range vision problems.

Carla Di-Gianni has the vision of a 20-year-old.
She is 57.
Her secret? Implants of multifocal lenses.
“Better than a car, or a house, these lenses are the best investment I’ve made in my life,” says Di Gianni, who first had the surgery in one eye and two months later in the other. “I can see up front and long range. In fact, to show my gratitude I would volunteer with the hospital to share the news with others.”
In 2006, when Di Gianni went to surgery, multifocal lenses were a novelty.
“The doctor was honest with me and told me there was not much she could tell me about the lenses because she was not too familiar with them, but I took the risk anyway.”
In the beginning, the operation had its side effects.
“Highway and automobile lights blew up 100-fold, but now all of that is gone and I see perfectly.”
Doctor Sonia H. Yoo, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Institute, says that precisely because multifocal lenses can cause these glows, there is an alternative known as the crystal lens implant. But while it does not cause lights to glow, it is not as precise as the multifocal.
“They are two different lenses,” Yoo says. “The multifocal one has a series of rings that provide great diversity when focusing and seeing. The crystal lens, which has that name because it is made of silicone, is a lens that provides long-, middle- and short-range vision. However, for reading fine print you may at times have to resort to glasses.”
This surgery “moves back the optical clock 10 or 15 years,” says Yoo. “It’s like an optical lift,” she jokes.
Actually, these lenses were initially designed to correct cataracts. Today the implants have become a valid option to resolve optical deficiencies that Lasik cannot resolve.
“Lasik is not a surgery for everyone,” Yoo says. “With this lens you can see at a distance and up close without problems, besides absolutely correcting all optical deficiencies.”
For example, Di Gianni did not consider Lasik when she knew of her condition. She began to lose her short-range vision when she was about 45 and only then she went to the ophthalmologist. Thanks to the testing she learned that she not only had presbyopia, but also myopia, or nearsightedness, she had suffered all her life. “When a person has never seen well, whatever she sees seems normal to her,” said Di Gianni, who added that contact lenses were quite an odyssey.
“Take them off, put them back on, clean them, eyes were dry… In the end I thought the best option was the implants.”
The operation cost her $5,000 each eye.
Doctor Carol Karp, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Institute, says the best candidates for this type of implant surgery are patients with cataracts, since their intraocular lens is opaque and an artificial lens is needed.
Generally, health insurance pays for the cataracts surgery and the monofocal lens, as does Medicare. However, it doesn’t pay for the multifocal lens, which cost an extra $2,500 for each eye.
Those who wish to correct both their short- and long-range vision without having to pay more for multifocal lenses can suggest to have a different implant correcting each condition in each eye, so that the sum of both makes for an almost perfect vision.
“Most patients get used to them to the point that they don’t know which eye they are reading with and which they are using to see long range,” Karp says.
“Cataract patients have no option and these implants are their salvation,” Yoo says. “However, you have to be aware that for those who do not suffer from this condition, the implant is an operation inside your eye and it has risks as any other surgery.”

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