Mythbusting laser eye surgery – will you need both eyes operated on?

Here at Optilase, we want to combat some of the myths surround laser eye surgery.

A common question that comes up when people first start explore the idea of laser eye surgery – will you need both eyes operated on?

The answer? Not always; it depends on your vision problems.

Once you enter your mid-forties, you are more likely to develop presbyopia (ageing of the eye that makes it hard to read things up close). This is aside from whatever refractive error you have!

If your problem is seeing things in the distance, and you have both eyes corrected for this, it means you will still need reading glasses to read things close to you.

Monovision
Monovision may be an option - this means that one eye is corrected for distance vision, so you can see far away, and the other eye is either corrected for near vision or in some cases, left in its natural state.

It may work for certain patients, but it is entirely dependent on that patient’s specific eye issues and age.

When it does work, it means that reliance on glasses for both distances is done away with. However, having two eyes focussing together and corrected for the same distance is what gives us binocular vision and gives critical depth perception.

Monovision does not work for everyone, some people will be aware of visual confusion as the eyes are focused at different distances and / or that judgement of depth is impaired.

This is an important consideration for those people for whom critical depth perception is required in their occupation or hobbies. Often a trial with contact lenses to simulate monovision will be offered and patients can assess for themselves how comfortable they are.

Also, bear in mind that Monovison may work better for early presbyopes with lower reading prescriptions, so even if it works initially, it probably won’t work over time.

Optilase offer two different solutions to people with presbyopia, designed to specifically address the condition, which is age related and not a problem with your corneas, called Presbia and KAMRA.

Presbia: Presbia is a tiny prescriptive lens which is customised to your vision. It is only 3mm in diameter and about 15 microns thick (one-fourth the thickness of a single human hair).

In a procedure that typically takes less than 10 minutes, the Presbia Microlens is implanted in a small pocket in the cornea of the patient’s non-dominant eye. The pocket seals itself, holding the lens in place at the centre of the visual axis.

Your near vision capability can be improved to see near, far and in-between, resulting in a greatly-lessened dependency or even a zero reliance on reading glasses, depending on the individual. Following a preliminary assessment, and pre operative assessment, we will discuss what sort of results you can expect and help you make an informed decision when it comes to choosing this procedure.

The Presbia Flexivue Microlens™ is designed to be easy to implant and removable and replaceable if the patient needs additional power later since visual acuity predictably changes with ageing.

KAMRA: The KAMRA inlay is a tiny ring with an opening in the centre. It rests under the surface of your cornea over the centre of your pupil. The KAMRA inlay corrects presbyopia by narrowing the opening that permits light rays to enter the eye. The KAMRA inlay repositions the focal point back on the surface of the retina to achieve crisp, sharp vision. The inlay itself is only 3.8 mm in diameter. It is smaller than a contact lens and weighs less than a grain of salt.

The actual procedure is painless and takes, on average, less than 10 minutes. Patients can resume most activities the very next day, free of the dependency on reading glasses. The level of near vision improvement varies from individual to individual but on average candidates can expect near vision to improve three lines or more.

To find out more, call Optilase on +353 1 223 8821 or enter your details in the consultation form and we’ll call you.