Is it true that I should expect my vision to change after cataract surgery?
FEB 24, 2017
Question:
Is it true that I should expect my vision to change after cataract surgery? Even if I choose the standard lens?
Answer:
In a healthy eye, the sharpness of vision is a function of several features: the front surface curvature (cornea), the focusing power of the lens, and the length of the eyeball. When one of these is less than perfect for sharp vision, eyeglasses or contact lenses are prescribed to sharpen the vision. Cataract surgery destroys the lens of the eye and a replacement artificial lens is placed inside the eye. It almost always lasts forever. The focusing power of that artificial lens can be calculated, within a small degree of error, to be whatever you and your ophthalmologist desire the visual outcome to be. Therefore, if you want to have excellent distance vision you may make that choice. If you prefer to have excellent near vision you may choose that option. If you wish to have the same vision you currently have, you may make that choice. All of this depends on several factors, one of which is the focusing power of the fellow eye as they must be kept reasonably close to the same so as not to make an imbalance. I fear I may have oversimplified this issue for the purposes of this setting and strongly urge you to discuss your visual outcome preferences fully with your ophthalmologist.