Cataract Surgery and Choice Of Lens

[Renato1]

Hi Everyone,
Just seeking opinions on which lens to get for my forthcoming surgery on my left eye. The Doctor says I have a choice of a long distance lens and a close distance lens - he doubts I'd like bifocal, and thinks the long distance one would be better for me. Possibly because I told him I like looking at stars.

So, a long distance lens would be good for driving and I wouldn't have to wear glasses. But it occurs to me that a close distance lens would mean not having to wear glasses when reading a book, computer screen, my phone, reading a star atlas at a telescope or just walking around on rough ground.

For any of you who've had the operation, what did you choose, and did you feel you made the right choice? I'd greatly appreciate any insight you can offer. And also - how it affected you at the telescope?
Regards,
Renato

[leon]

Hi Renato, I have had both eyes don some years ago and didn't get a choice, I was never asked and the eye specialist just measured up everything and did his stuff.

Leon

[fsphotography]

Hi Renato, i had both eyes done 11 months ago, wonderfull vision now. I was given a choice, like you, but the surgeon recommended to go with long vision,
taking into account my interest in astronomy. It was the right choice for me.
I can read quite well without glasses in well lit conditions and my long distance is remarkable. In low light i need reading glasses but most of the time manage quite well without them. I think if you go for the close distance you are going to have to keep having to put on your long distance glasses for normal use. Either way you are going to need glasses of some sort, its just a matter of working out which creates the most inconvenience. Thats been my experience but its not the same for everyone. Remember, whatever you go with your stuck with.

Frank.

[julianh72]

Renato,

I had my cataracts done just over 12 months ago. My left eye in particular has a slightly distorted outer surface of the cornea, which was leading to optical aberrations, in addition to the cataract issues. My ophthalmologist recommended IC-8 "small aperture" lenses for me. I am delighted with the outcome, but these lenses may not suit everybody.
https://www.bauschsurgical.eu/products/cataract/premium-intraocular-lenses/ic-8tm/

The IC-8 lenses have an opaque "donut" with a small central open aperture. This minimises the amount of "off-axis" light entering the eye. This has dramatically reduced the amount of aberration and astigmatism I get from my mis-shaped corneas. The "pinhole" lenses mean that in good light, I have crystal-sharp vision from about 20 cm out to infinity. My daytime vision is excellent, as is my night-time vision, but the reduced aperture means that in low light conditions, I struggle a bit to read fine print etc. (My pupils open up as normal for a person of my age, but the fixed aperture lens means that my effective aperture is equivalent to what my pupils would be in a well-lit room or similar.)

As far as looking through a telescope is concerned - I guess it's like having perfect vision, but having the telescope "stopped down" a bit. The improvement in clarity of my night vision more than compensates for the slight loss of brightness.

[Renato1]

That's interesting, thanks Leon.
I wish there was a choice of a middling level of correction, because that's pretty much where I'm at now.
Cheers,
Renato

[Renato1]

Thanks Frank,
That's good to know that you can still read without glasses in bright light. I guess that means that if I increase brightness on computer, phone and tablet I wouldn't need glasses. Though it would be difficult with star maps without a bright torch (I'm not computerised on my telescopes).
Regards,
Renato

[Renato1]

Thanks Julian,
I didn't know such a lens existed. I'd be worried about the small aperture though as, compared to other people, I've always been able to see in the dark where they were saying they were blind as bats.

Whichever lens I choose, it will be interesting as similar to you, I have really bad astigmatism in both eyes, and the scrip for them says I need eye glasses for driving and reading. But on the eyechart tests, I always outperformed by two lines of letters what the scrip said I should achieve. Might be weird having a razor sharp eye and an astigmatic one.
Cheers,
Renato

[LindsayS]

My experience is the same as Frank. I had them done 18 months ago. I opted for long vision and it has been fantastic for viewing. I sometimes use just basic magnifying eyeglasses from Chemist Warehouse for reading, but no more prescription glasses.

[Renato1]

Thanks for letting me know that Lindsay.
It looks like long distance is the way to go.
Regards,
Renato

[Nikolas]

I've had 2 friend do the one long one short and they couldn't be happier. Even my mother in law did it 18 years ago and she didnt need to wear glasses afterwards. (she's gone now)

[Kuz]

Mate got mine done last march went with one long to medium and one short to medium . Perfect eye sight now. One was round and the other was luke a rugby ball shape.

[Renato1]

Thanks Guys,
Strangely enough I had friends tell me about someone they knew getting unmatched lenses too. I'm puzzled though - how does one focus?

Kuz - did you have to wait a while till your eyes somehow brought both eyes into focus?
Regards,
Renato

[glend]

Are zoom lenses available? Do TeleVue make them?:eyepop:

[Renato1]

If only.
Though I'd be happy with Celestron or Meade ones.
Cheers,
Renato

[Satchmo]

Renato my advice is don't go the different distance focus on each eye , it will encourage monocular vision . Remeber if you get a distance setting for each eye you will only be using optimally one eye for each task ! A friend of mine had reading on left eye and they made it too weak and he has to wear a contact lens for normal daytime . If you already use glasses for distance you will need to get both eyes done as you can't wear glasses for one eye .

I'd recommend just get distance both eyes and use readers for computer etc . That way there is no discretion about how much your corrective difference they'll give you because vision is such a personal thing .

I had my right eye done four months ago and now my left in two days .
My surgeon tried to push blue blocking lenses as older people have yellow lenses anyway - but this gives you a very skewed colour balance . I insisted on clear lenses ( Zeiss ) and the world look much more colorful and stunning now - I have much better blue and violet response . Bright stars look twice as bright as my left now ( and I have no cataract in the left eye ) .

I have some astronomy glasses made up with 0.5 dioptre astigmatism which was residual after healing from surgery ,and 0.5 dioptre to correct the usual night myopia most people have .

Contrast in the Milky Way is stunning- even the brightest stars are needle points and I can see 6 to 7 stars in the Pleiades and most large star clusters show stars flickering in and out . I actually cried when I saw a dark sky with my new eye for the first time - it was that overwhelming after dealing with the deterioration in my right eye over 18 months . Remided me of the views I had of the sky when I first became interested in Astronomy 50 years ago.

Hope this helps .

[Renato1]

Thanks very much for your insights Mark.

I didn't know there was such a thing as Blue Blocking lenses - I occasionally use Blue blocking glasses, as I'm blue eyed and get teary-eyed when driving at night when it's raining, from other cers' headlights. Never use them otherwise, except for cutting pieces of them to stick on eyepieces to sharpen views in refractors.

I didn't know there were Zeiss lenses either.

It will be interesting, as I'm only getting one eye done, while the other has astigmatism, but can still see close and pretty far.

When you talk about your experience seeing the sky properly, it gives me something to enthusiastically look forward to (in a trepid fashion). I have a pair of Vixen 2.3x glasses I bought off a chap here, and the view hasn't been any good so far. Might be mighty interesting what the view through them will be like after the opration.

I've had my eyes measured, but the Doctor hasn't gotten back to me to discuss lenses and operation date.
Cheers,
Renato

[Kuz]

Hi Renato . No mate they adjusted in a couple of days . Although if I look through only one eye it takes a few seconds to adjust. Best thing I ever done . My eye are awesome and only need glasses for very close up stuff . Looking though a eye piece no problem at all.

[Renato1]

Thanks again for your input.
Much appreciated.
Regards,
Renato

[UniPol]

I had intraocular toroidal lenses fitted a little over seven years ago and have been very happy with the results. Google says :

Toric intraocular lenses (IOLs) are considered the most predictive way of correcting corneal astigmatism in a patient undergoing cataract surgery, as they may correct astigmatism as low as 0.75 diopters. Monofocal and multifocal toric IOLs are available and are chosen based on the patient's expectations.

I've always had astigmatism (about +ve 2.00 in both eyes) so had to wear glasses. After the ops which were a month apart I only had to wear reading glasses (around 500mm fl) and computer glasses ( around 400mm fl). Apparently always had better than 20/20 vision but the astigmatism was the bugbear. Nice not to wear glasses after many years so looking into eyepieces without them was great. The only issue I now have is floaties which have got steadily worse over the past three to four years, this can be seen to apparently but at a cost and is not guaranteed to be fully effective, part of the aging process I believe, I'm 73 now.

[Satchmo]

So apparently I'm the only one to request the full spectrum lenses in a good while. Anyway if you are only getting one eye done - well you might probably be given a blue block lens as your other natural eye lens would be fairly yellow by now and they want to match .

However most right handed people are right eye dominant so I felt that the new colour balance dominated . When I got the clear lens on the right the new colour balance difference was pretty striking . Blue and violets much stronger and whites looking much whiter . I could immediately see the chromatic aberration in my finderscope .


I have had my left eye done now 6 days ago , results are fantastic , better than 20/20 in that eye already . Very happy .

[Renato1]

Thanks very much for your insights.
Apparently I've been lucky, the eye doctor said that my astigmatism was bad in both eyes, but somehow there was compensation between the two eyes - which was why I never wore glasses, except for looking at the night sky.

I'm waiting for him to ring me back to set an operation time, when hopefully I'll be by the computer and can ask him about Toric intraocular lenses, and the other ones mentioned in this thread.

I've been waiting for a few weeks. I haven't rung him because of trepidation and being happy to put it off. Oddly, the vision blur in my left eye is stiil there, but not as bad as what it was when I first went running off to see him.
Cheers,
Renato

[Renato1]

Very glad it's worked out so well for you.

Interesting about your colour perception being improved. It will be interesting to see what happens with my left eye since, ever since I started using telescopes and binoculars, I've noticed that when I used it on emission nebulas, it was like having half a broad band LPR filter in it, compared to the view in my right eye.
Cheers,
Renato

[Satchmo]

The natural lens yellows as it ages filters out the blue /violet end of the spectrum . The blue/blocking lens replacement has a 10% light transmission at 405nm similar to the aged eye . Cataracts are particularly yellow orange in colour . Even with a single lens replacement with a clear lens , my perception of blue light with both eyes open improved dramatically and whites looked really white . And there was certainly a big difference when looking through a telescope at M42 Orion nebula for example .

[Renato1]

Thanks.
Sounds like I have something to look forward to!
Cheers,
Renato

[Renato1]

Well, I finally had my cataract operation on my left eye, and you were very much correct.

I looked at my arm and leg with my normal eye, and they were tanned.
I looked with the cataract-free eye, and they were white.

My wife was lying back on the couch.
I looked at her foot and leg with my normal eye, and they were pale.
Then I looked with my cataract- free eye, and they turned a whiter shade of pale. I now know what that song was about.

So I now live in a much cooler world with one eye, and a warmer world with the other. A curious experience.
Regards,
Renato

[Leo.G]

Time for a fake tan Renato?
Otherwise how is your vision?

[Renato1]

Thanks Leo,
On the one hand, I can see sharply out of that eye again - it was a total blur before. So I can read my phone, computer and books with ease again (my other eye is a bit problematic, requiring injections to see sharply).

On the other hand, I have a long, bright streak coming out of it at a 45 degree angle whenever I see bright street lights or car headlights or the moon at night, which is very annoying. The eye doctor says it is a fold over the lens which may go away by itself, or which will need to be burned off with a laser.

The streak shows no sign of improving, so a lasering looks to be coming.
Cheers,
Renato

[blindman]

Actually, Nikon make them, 100000PX model, and you can zoom with your Iphone nxt generation. :rofl:

[Leo.G]

That sounds very much like the problem an engineer friend has with the bright streaks after having laser surgery in his 40s, he said he can no longer drive at night but he could for a period see his engineering work without glasses but he's now wearing his glasses again.