If you are a candidate for cataract surgery, you may want to consider enhancing your procedure by selecting multi-focal lenses or premium intraocular lenses. Unlike standard lenses, multifocal lens design uses technology to provide patients with near, intermediate, and distance vision. Presbyopia is a condition that usually starts to affect people in their early to mid forties when they can no longer see well up close. As a result, presbyopic patients have difficulty with activities such as reading, sewing, and using the computer. 

Many patients note that, after receiving these lenses, reading without glasses is as easy as it was before their forties. Even when patients opt to follow up with a pair of glasses, many find that wearing these glasses is not essential for the majority of their daily functions. Medicare and most insurance companies cover the cost for cataract surgery using the standard intraocular lens. If you choose to proceed with a multifocal lens, Medicare will still provide up to its allowed payment for the standard procedure and operating room time. Medicare, and supplementary insurance plans, will not cover the cost of upgrading your lens or additional testing and evaluation.

Four categories of Premium IOL’s exist. These include multifocal and accommodative IOL’s (which allow a wider range of vision and lessen the need for reading glasses), Toric IOL’s to get rid of astigmatism (asymmetric curvature of the eye), and Aspheric IOL’s for highly demanding visual tasks such as truck drivers and photographers who cannot tolerate any glare in their work.                                                                     
 
With all of these IOL options, special care and attention must be given in deciding which patients should receive which implants as we really do not live in a one size fits all world. At Crane Eye Care, Dr. Timothy Crane uses a style of lens known as the Restor IOL. 
 
Our pre-operative workup must take into account many factors including occupation, hobbies, pre-existing eye disease, pupil size and astigmatism. We must select the appropriate style of implant, correct pre-existing astigmatism, and take measurements that are used to calculate the strength of the IOL.                                                    
 
Post-operatively, patients should expect their best near and distance vision to occur only after both eyes are corrected. Glare and halos, especially at night, are common for many weeks after surgery and are adapted to by 96% of patients. If the implant power is not yet giving the optimal vision, then enhancements can be performed. These “touch up” procedures take many forms including astigmatism correction, Lasik (laser vision correction) or exchanging the existing IOL for a different strength.            
 
ReStor IOL's    

The ReSTOR IOL uses multifocal diffractive technology to increase independence from glasses. Its unique design means that in bright light when the pupil is constricted, incoming light is equally divided between near and distance vision for better reading. When the pupil is larger under dim light conditions, such as night driving, more light is dedicated to distance vision. All multifocal IOL’s have the potential to produce halos around light sources at night. Over 90% of people with this IOL in both eyes can both pass the drivers vision test (20/40) and read a newspaper. Computer users and those who do other work at arms length may need to shorten their distance since the ReSTOR may not give sharp vision at these intermediate working distances.

Medicare and other insurance plans do not fund the additional cost of these newest types of implants and the related services needed for their use. Medicare patients are allowed to purchase these IOL’s so that they may enjoy the advantages of presbyopia correcting IOL’s following cataract surgery.

The AcrySof ReSTOR lens is a foldable IOL that represents breakthrough technology because of its unique, patented optic design, which allows patients to experience the highest level of freedom from glasses ever achieved in IOL clinical trials.