Cataract Surgery

Cataract surgery technology has advanced so much that cataracts can be cured with a 15-minute outpatient surgical procedure. During the procedure, the lens you were born with is removed and then replaced with a synthetic lens that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Insurance companies will only pay for lenses that allow you to focus at one distance (“monofocal” lenses), and you will need to wear glasses to see at other distances. If you are interested in becoming less reliant on glasses, consider one of our premium intraocular lenses. These include Symfony, ReStor, PanOptix, and other multifocal lenses.

Astigmatism causes blurry vision at all distances if it is not corrected at the time of surgery or with glasses afterwards. Unfortunately, insurance companies also do not cover astigmatism correction. If you have significant astigmatism, your vision after surgery without glasses will be blurry, and you will need to wear prescription bifocal or progressive glasses. If you have a lot of astigmatism and would rather just be able to use over-the-counter reading glasses after surgery, a toric lens should be considered.

One other more affordable option for patients who want to become less reliant on glasses is called monovision. This means that one eye sees far and the other eye sees near. This works for some people, but not for others. Depth perception is compromised, because the eyes are not focused at the same place.

Laser-assisted cataract surgery on the LenSx platform is yet another option that is available. Laser incisions are more precise than what can be achieved manually, but unfortunately are not covered by insurance.