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The physicians with Dean A. McGee Eye Institute are performing high-tech lens implants using a competing technology to that employed by Edmond eye surgeons Brad Britton and Brad Taylor.

While the Edmond ophthalmic surgeons say they have performed 120 or more implants using "crystalens®" technology with great success, their Dean McGee counterparts choose what is known as "AcrySof ReSTOR®" lens. crystalens®, manufactured by Eyeonics Inc., relies on a method known as "accommodation" of the eyes in moving the tiny lens back and forth to focus on close, distant and middle distance. ReSTOR® Lens, manufactured by Alcon Inc., was approved by the FDA in March. It was selected after independent investigation by the Dean McGee physicians because it was based on "firm scientific principal and mathematics," said Dr. David Jackson, an anterior segment surgeon with the institute. ReSTOR® Lens provide focused near and distant vision not by muscular "accommodation," but through lens "refraction," or the way light is focused. Jackson said he has done about 15 ReSTOR® Lens implants and estimates the institute's surgeons have implanted up to 40.

"At Dean McGee, we like the fact that the capabilities of this lens are mathematical and proven," Jackson said. "There is strong science behind it. That of the crystalens® is highly debated and unproven."

Britton, founder of Edmond-based BVA Advanced Eye Care clinic, acknowledged that there is debate among scientists and eye care professionals over how the technology works. He was the first doctor in Oklahoma certified to perform crystalens ® implants, which were approved by the FDA in 2003.

"I think what the folks at Dean McGee were saying over the science of the crystalens®, there is some dispute about how we accommodate, the way the eye muscles work," Britton said. "The only thing that really matters is the fact that patients can learn to move this lens in the eye, whether it's based on one theory of muscle movement in the eye or based on vitreous pressure. From a pragmatic standpoint it doesn't really matter how it works as long as it does."

Because it divides light as a "multifocal" lens, the ReSTOR® Lens technology has potential for halos or glares at night for patients who have them implanted, Britton said. Still, he plans to add ReSTOR® lens implants to his practice, as well as a third technology, ReZoom™ Lens, another multifocal lens made by Advanced Medical Optics. "There are some patients that I think certain (lenses) are better suited for," Britton said.