48 year old male, lasik patient, considering lens exchange.

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Greeting all!

I recognize this is a cataract forum, and I don't yet have cataracts, but I am considering cataract surgery electively to head that off and correct aging related vision.

First, I'm willing to listen to advice NOT to do it until medically necessary.

Second, most of today, I've been reading over various threads here and have come to some conclusions thanks in large part to @RonAKA.

So I'll get into that, and I apologize for the length.

As noted, I'm 48 years old and I had lasik in 2007 to correct astigmatism and myopia. I can't remember my pre lasik measurements, but I was about 20/200. Now, I think I measure about 20/30 - 20/40, and I can get the actual measurements when I get access to my records with my new eye doctor. We did a visit the other day in preparation for my refractive lens exchange appointment on 3/10.

My lasik has held up well over the years, but now I'm starting to see the need for readers and less than 20/20 distance vision. I currently do not use any correction at all, but can no longer read text messages, for example, any closer than 8 inches. Typing this on my laptop about 16-18" away, however, is just fine.

This doctor uses Alcon products and my eye doctor said he would suggest two vivity lenses and deal with needing readers occassionally. With that idea, I set off to research what's out there, which brought me to this forum.

For me, international travel, hiking, backpacking, driving, and night driving are of utmost importance.

I'm willing to deal with readers on occassion. Most of my life is spent at 18" and out (computer use and travelling).

To that end, because of this forum, I don't think two vivity lenses is going to be the right solution for me.

Ron has suggested a monofocal for distance in the dominant eye, and a vivity at -1.0 in the non dominant eye.

I wanted to get more thoughts on my situation as a lasik patient and that recommendation above. Any other insights suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm also willing to wait until I NEED correction before considering this.

I'm just trying to arm myself with information for my surgical consult on 3/10/23.

Thank you!

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • Edited

    I'm not sure Vivity would be the best choice for night driving as that lens has a rather elongated defocus curve than a number of other choices. You could go mini-monovision with monofocal lenses, or maybe Eyhance or even the Rayner EMV (which I have).

    Indy G

  • Edited

    My immediate thought and suggestion is to wait until cataracts forces the issue. It sounds like your close vision is still reasonably good. If you were to go ahead with Vivity set for distance in both eyes your vision is most likely to be poorer than what you have now. If you set one eye to -1.0 D then vision might improve to about what you have now, but not likely better.

    .

    So my thoughts are to hold off. IOLs may have improved by the time you need them.

    • Posted

      Thank you very much. The more I read and think about it, I think I am landing on waiting until necessary medically.

      I'm not using any correction right now and like you mention, I'd likely be forcing myself into some prematurely.

      I'm still going to do the consult if for nothing else but to see if the surgeon is someone I want to see in the future.

      Thank you!

    • Edited

      Having prior Lasik can make the eye difficult to measure accurately for an IOL. So if you are going to gather information, I would ask what measurement methods and formulas they would use to calculate power. And, ask if some lenses are not recommended for someone who has had Lasik. I believe MF lenses are generally considered not suitable, and some may not use Vivity either. Having Lasik can increase the odds of having optical side effects.

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