Posted by: SightTrust Eye Institute in Uncategorized
LASIK is a terrific way to decrease your need for glasses. The procedure helps reshape the cornea – the front window of the eye – in order to focus the vision for better distance. People over the age of 40 who need reading glasses may choose to have one eye focused for reading, a treatment called monovision. Age, prescription (nearsightedness, farsightedness, and/or astigmatism), and the overall health of the eye may affect whether one can reap the benefits of this procedure, and unfortunately, not everyone is a candidate for LASIK.
The good news is that there are alternative treatments to LASIK that not only provide the same vision benefits, but can permanently reduce or eliminate your need for glasses. The two most common options are phakic intraocular lenses (IOLs) and clear lens extraction with multifocal IOLs. This blog will discuss phakic IOLs and how they may benefit you.
Phakic IOLs are best thought of as “implantable contact lenses”. These devices sit on the iris (the color of the eye) and adjust the focus of the eye without the need to surgically reshape the cornea. Phakic IOLs correct nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism in much the same way that contact lenses do, and can treat higher amounts of prescription than LASIK. Some implants can treat over 23 diopters of nearsightedness, 12 diopters of farsightedness, and up to 7.5 diopters of astigmatism. These implants are permanent and removable, meaning that as long as a person is seeing well the lens can stay in place, but should a new technology arise that may be better or should someone require a different treatment in the future such as cataract surgery, the implant can be easily removed at that time.
Phakic IOLs have been around for several decades and have proved themselves as a great alternative to laser vision correction. If you would like more information about this technology and how it may benefit you, do not hesitate to call us at 877-878-7890.
