sabfish

Cataracts are not the same as glaucoma. Two very different conditions. These days, cataract patients are offered a variety of lens. The cheapest which is covered by Medicare, is a single focus lens, usually for distance. With that you need to wear reading glasses for close work. For a substantial additional payment (over Medicare), you can get a multi-focal lens that allow you uncorrected vision both near and far. Your ophthalmologist should explain the options to you.

redlegfrog

Sorry, not always true. I had my eyes done the first of February. I love the improvement in my vision but I still had to get prescription glass's to correct my astigmatism.

hookedupin2005 Loc: Northwestern New Mexico

Cataract surgery removes a cloudy "skin" from your eye.... It has NOTHING to do with a stigmatism. That is corrected with the implants, or with glasses.

hookedupin2005 Loc: Northwestern New Mexico

Or both...as in my case

sabfish

Not to be argumentative, but there are now some replacement lens that can correct astigmatism. My wife got them. See this website: http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/toric-iols.htm
but it depends on the severity of the astigmatism. In any event, I did not mention astigmatism, I was talking about seeing distance and closeup without the use of glasses. Astigmatism is yet something else.

incognito

Wrong!! With general implants most people have the same amount of astigmatism as they did prior to surgery. As mentioned before most astigmatism is corneal vs lenticular astigmatism. They could do a limbal relaxing incision that is similar to AK depending on the amount of the astigmatism but that would not remove all the astigmatism.

al13

My lens corrected my astigmatism in both eyes. The surgery was done to take care of my cataracts. As I said, the lens cost more and required an additional test to make sure I was a candidate. Mine were done by one of the Vanderbilt University’s eye surgeons and I still have 20/20 in both eyes.

redlegfrog

I'm jealous!!!

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Re Astigmatism: Astigmatism is basically an imperfection in the lens of the eye that cannot be corrected by a simple spherical lens. You can tell is you have astigmatism by looking at your prescription. If you see an entry under cylinder you have astigmatism. It is corrected by a cylindrical shape of a power in diopters at an angle labeled axis. Or hold your glasses out a foot or so in front of your eye and rotate them. If the image you see leans one way or the other you have astigmatism correction. Your lens is a compound pair or the cornea and the "lens". astigmatism can occur in either or both and is correctable (in most cases) with a toric IOL. What I don't know is how the optometrist actually measures ans separates the cornea from the IntraOcular Lens but that is not a problem. Toric IOLs are not new but most insurance companies will not pay for them. I suppose the reasoning is that astigmatism was correctable before cataract surgery, hence, not part of cataric surgery. In my case the correction for one eye was too small for available toric IOLs. The other was corrected to negligible 0.25 diopters. Since the eye does not have reference marks for the surgeon to set the angle the OD put a pen mark on the eye for the surgeon to align a dot on the implant. Cool. I got a family discount for the surgery which coincidentally was exactly equal to the copay. But I paid "cost" for the IOL which I remember was $775 or so.

Toby

I agree. A friend of mine who wore glasses most of his life was over whelmed with his results but after a few months the lens apparently rotated and he then needed reading glasses. That's why I opted for the simple lenses and saved $1800. My glasses have only a slight correction for distance and bifocals for reading.

Toby

I agree but ask them if they guarantee the results.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Astigmatism requires special cataract replacement lenses. I was part of a clinical trial for Alcon Toric lenses back in 2008. They work great! I see as well or better than I did in sixth grade.

Ask your ophthalmologist about all your options.

fstop11 Loc: Huntington Beach Ca

I wore mono contact lens. When I had cataract sugary I had mono lens implanted one for distance one for reading. They could do this because I had no problem wearing mono contacts. The DMV cant handle this so I have to take the driving test every 5 years. This year I through in the towel had to take the written test + driving test so I got glasses for distance no driving test.

My wif is going to have the sugery medicare pays for nor sugery which will be a plane corrected lens. Glasses may still be required jus depends. However the technology has changed a lot. They have lazer assisted machines Cost $500,000 there is no medicar code for so you pay another $3,500 dollars then medicars cover there part. You dont have to have this lazar assisted procedure but my wifes doctor made it sound necessary until we pressed the medical staff and our wonderful medicare insurance company with questions. The only person who leveled with us was the person that did the billing to medicare, so be aware ther are a lot of options for lens and for procedures without using a $500,000 machine.

My wifes doctor is a teachin professor on lazer sugery using different procedures. Why this group of doctors would invest this much money in a machine that has no medical billing code is beyond. This $3500 was up front depost was a soft sell or he wont do the sugery. My wife thougt she had to use this procedure.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I told my doctor to give me f/22 vision. I am grateful to be able to see as well as I do now (3 years later). I wear glasses to see small print only.

bjwags

yep, no big deal