Cataracts

This is the standard choice as a lens type. These lenses have a single power, meaning you will have vision “tuned” to be better for either near or far, but will require reading glasses or contact lenses for “fine-tuning”. Additionally, this lens does not allow you to vary your vision between near and far. The advantage of this lens is the good quality of vision & perceived lack of glare and diminished night vision. The cost of these lenses are also covered by most medical aids.

These intra-ocular lenses are premium IOLs. They are modern IOLs with different regions of power, meaning they provide the ability for you as a patient to be able to see near and far after the surgery.  Medical aids do not cover the cost of these lenses, and if you choose to implant these lenses, out of pocket expenses will be incurred.

If you are highly expectant of perfect quality of vision, or prone to fault finding with small details, then you should best avoid these lenses (Type A Personality). These lenses are well known to cause glare (5%), halos around lights (5%) and diminished contrast /night vision (5%) and are expensive.

The benefits of these lenses include greater range of vision and no-spectacle freedom. Like multifocal contact lenses, these premium IOLs contain added magnification in different parts of the lens to expand your range of vision so you can see objects clearly at all distances without glasses or contact lenses.

Multifocal IOLs are another category of presbyopia-correcting IOLs that can decrease your need for reading glasses or computer glasses after cataract surgery.

If you choose to implant these lenses, and become unhappy with the quality of vision, the lens can be removed and replaced by a different lens. From research, it appears that about 1% of patients (therefore – very rarely) choose to have the lenses removed and replaced with a different lens. Re-operation could potentially also lead to further expenses which the medical aids may or may not cover.

Toric IOLs are premium IOLs that correct astigmatism- astigmatism is a common and usually minor condition of the eye that causes blurred or distorted vision- as well as nearsightedness or farsightedness. Like toric soft contact lenses, toric IOLs can correct astigmatism because they have different powers in different meridians of the lens. They also have alignment markings on the peripheral part of the lens that enable the surgeon to adjust the orientation of the IOL inside the eye for optimal astigmatism correction.

If you suffer from more than 1D of astigmatism, special IOLs called toric lenses can be implanted at the time of cataract surgery to reduce the amount of astigmatism. These lenses are now covered by some medical aids, although a co-payment might be required depending on the specific plan you are on. An alternative to the toric lens is making small corneal relaxing cuts at the time of cataract surgery so as to relieve some of the astigmatism.

This lens placement strategy uses monofocal IOLs (see above) of different strengths placed in both eyes. This is well tolerated by patients and represents the most cost effective means to attempt greater spectacle independence after cataract surgery. One eye (the dominant eye) corrects for distance vision and the other eye receives a stronger monofocal IOL so as to correct for near vision. As a combination then, the two eyes together will allow the patient to have good vision for near and distance, allowing them greater spectacle independence.

Mono-vision strategies require some getting used to, so it is often useful to do a contact lens trial for a week or two (to simulate the probable outcome) before implementation.

All of the above mentioned choices are available to you. The choices will be discussed with you, and depending on individual risk factors, preferences and medical aid cover, a choice of lens implant can be made.