Cataract Implant Options - IOLs
Offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Ada, Elk City, Muskogee and throughout Oklahoma
Accommodating Intraocular Lenses (IOLs)
Would you like to avoid having to use reading glasses or contact lenses? Perhaps you already have them and would be glad to discard them. IOLs are an excellent option for two groups of people: those who are farsighted and need glasses for reading, and those who have cataracts and need cataract surgery.
Presbyopia
The crystalline lens in the eye is a transparent convex structure which focuses light rays after they enter the eye, and sends them back to the retina (which is like the film in a camera). When an object is distant, the muscles which control the shape of the lens are more relaxed, allowing the lens to be more convex. When an object is nearby, those muscles tighten a little, flattening the lens. In this way, the lens acquires the right curvature to focus the light rays accurately on the retina. This is known as accommodation.
As the eyes age, the lens becomes more stiff and the muscles controlling it become weaker. This makes near objects look blurry, as the muscles are not able to pull the lens into a flat enough shape. In this way, reading glasses become necessary.
Cataract surgery
In the past, if you had cataract surgery, with an artificial lens replacing your clouded natural one, the new lens allowed for distance vision, but reading glasses were still necessary. That's because the intraocular lenses used were not able to adjust for vision at different distances, so they were set for far vision and the glasses or contact lenses took care of close vision.
Accommodating IOLs
However, now there's a liberating new type of intraocular lens available, known as accommodating IOLs. Rather than giving clear vision just for distant objects, or just for close-up objects, accommodating IOLs can adjust much the way the eye's natural lens does to varying distances.
At BVA we offer three types of accommodating IOLs.
 crystalens®
ReSTOR®
ReZoom™
Each of these works in a different way to give you clear vision at near, far, and intermediate distances. If you need cataract surgery and a new lens to replace the clouded one, or if you have developed presbyopia, with that stiffening of the lens, an accommodating IOL can be implanted and this can enable you to read without glasses.
At BVA we can examine your eyes and assess your whole vision situation, to determine which of these three types of accommodating lenses might be the right one for you.
For more information about IOLs, cataract surgery or presbyopia, please call or e-mail us today.
See Better. Live Better.
(405) 752-2733
(888) 323-3937
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