What Is Vision Correction For Adults?

SAMER HAMADA EXPLAINS WHAT IS VISION CORRECTION FOR ADULTS

Adults with refractive errors who wear glasses could benefit from refractive surgery.

Refractive surgery could be in terms of laser vision correction, or lens replacement surgery. If we show you the eye model, the cornea is the front window of the eye, which is the transparent or the clear part of the eye. The laser vision correction means reshaping the cornea to correct the prescription and allow good vision.

Your cornea has to be healthy, and the lens inside the eye has to be clear for you to be suitable for laser vision correction. You also have to be an adult above the age of 20 with stable refraction. If the cornea is deemed unsuitable for laser vision correction, the next option would be to have a lens implant inside the eye. This is called a phakic lens implant, which is an additional lens. We usually implant these lenses behind the pupil in front of the natural lens and between the iris.

Once this lens can focus the image nicely on the retina, it’s going to correct short-sighted, astigmatism and in some cases, long-sightedness as well.

If the natural lens is not that clear, and the patient is aged over 45, they could be suitable for lens replacement surgery. Lens replacement surgery is exactly like a cataract operation, just that the lens has not developed any cataract. Therefore, what we do is replace the natural lens with a new implant. This is a model of an implant, which is implanted in that space after we remove the clear lens. 

Now, because the patient is looking for a refractive outcome, this means they want independence from glasses for reading and distance, it makes sense to put multifocal lens implants in. This is one of the models, multifocal lenses, which have multiple zones in it. Various zones do various tasks. Some zones are for reading, some for intermediate, and some for distance vision. With this implant, the patients will achieve very good outcomes for reading and distance, as well as intermediate vision. It’s called trifocal lenses, which has focused on three focal points, which meets most of the patient’s needs.

Laser vision correction is good for someone above the age of 20 and with good corneas and clear natural lenses. Otherwise, ICLs, or phakic lens implants, could be inserted in the eye to allow vision correction.

If the natural lens itself is not clear, then lens replacement surgery would be a good option to replace the natural lens with a new implant. The implant chosen depends on the patient’s needs. Therefore, if the patient’s looking to be free from glasses for all tasks, whether reading, distance, or intermediate, then trifocal lenses would be a very good option. If the patient is only interested in intermediate tasks and distance tasks, then the extended depth of focus lenses are a good option.