Flickering iol=solution

I'm 67 with Technis ZCB00 monofocals. I had some flickering after my left eye cataract surgery 3 months ago, but it went away after a few weeks. It was infrequent, only under certain lighting conditions, and I didn't find it bothersome. I had my right eye cataract surgery 2 days ago and had some flickering while my eyes were still dilated, but nothing since.

Most current lenses, including the ZCB00, have squared edges to diminish or delay the possibility of PCO, but may be more prone to negative dysphotopsia. So far so good for me though.

Congrats on your 2nd eye surgery - sounds like it was a success.

Going under Sue.An2 (for some odd reason my Sue.An account was deactivated. ) I can log in but can't post. Sad to lose all my threads.

Thank you for sharing your experience! I have read that there is less of this problem associated with the Technis lens so I wonder why more cataract surgeons use the Alcon. I'm calling my surgeon tomorrow to see if the Technis can possibly be used for my surgery. I'm glad to hear that all is going well for you.

Thanks, Su.An. The surgery itself wasn't so pleasant. It started out being very painful. The surgeon had to stop and have more anesthesia administered. I was surprised to experience pain during both of my surgeries (the second was worse than the first) after hearing everywhere that the surgery is smooth sailing. I can usually withstand a bit of pain, but this was too much to hold still for. I guess either it takes more anesthesia than expected to do the trick for me or the anesthesiologist did a poor job administering the correct amount.

In any event, the results seem good so far. I originally aimed for near vision with my left eye, but ended up at -1.00 with -0.25 astigmatism according to a recent eye exam. So I targeted distance vision in my right eye. I don't think I'm quite at plano, but the distance vision so far is pretty good. It's only been 2 days though, and may settle differently after more time as my left eye did.

Oh so sorry to hear it was a painful procedure. Did they pour a vial numbing liquid in your eye or some other method? I have read that people do react differently but if there was an issue first surgery that should have been taken into account for 2nd surgery.

Hopefully better distance vision for 2nd and there won't be much change from what you have - sounds like it's providing what you need.

hopefully healing process not so painful.

I'm guessing the Alcon is used more extensively for any of the following reasons - it may be cheaper, it may be easier to inject, better marketing, or first-on-market. The Tecnis has a higher Abbe number (higher is better) and a lower index of refraction (lower is better) than the Alcon; however, I don't know if there is a real world difference.

I actually might have gone with a Bausch & Lomb monofocal if it was offered by a nearby doctor. The Tecnis and Alcon provide a negative correction for spherical aberration (SA) to counter the average person's positive SA level, while the B&L is neutral in this regard and so leaves the SA level remain uncorrected. What this is supposed to mean is that the Tecnis and Alcon would provide somewhat better visual acuity but the B&L would provide a somewhat greater depth of field. I was willing to sacrifice a little visual acuity for the larger depth of field. No glistenings with the B&L either.

However, I'm really happy so far with the Tecnis. The mini-monovision I've achieved has given me a good depth of field from around 18 inches out to distance. For extensive newspaper or book reading, it will be more comfortable for me to use readers.

The anesthesia was administered via arm tube. They also applied a numbing eye drop. Oh well, it's over now so no worries.

The healing process is going great. All is clear, at least for now, and that's particularly good since next week I'm going to Cancun for a week.

Enjoy the weather in Cancun. I am headed to Florida next week. Canadian winter has been particularly cold this year and I can't wait to escape even for a week.

Glad all is going well for you.

I just spoke with my surgeon and he said I can do the Tecnis instead of the Alcon, if that is my preference. He didn't deny that the Alcon has issues with glimmering and light reflection but he said that Tecnis has problems with shimmering and shadows. I guess there is not a perfect lens out there. I don't know what the difference is between glistening and shimmering. Have you experienced the shadows? Now I am really confused and don't know which way to go.

I'm not seeing any shadows or other effects at this time, although my right eye is still healing. I mentioned earlier that I had some initial flickering after my left eye surgery, which might be what your surgeon is calling shimmering. It went away after a few weeks.

The shadows he mentioned may be the dark arcs some see in the peripheral of their vision after cataract surgery. I think the conventional thought is that the dark arcs are shadows from the lens that occur when the pupil is larger than the lens. Because older patients generally have smaller pupils, this may happen more with younger patients.

Someone said in this forum a while back that the functional optic diameter of the Tecnis is about 5 mm, less than its 6mm total diameter, due to the peripheral ring design. I don't know whether this is accurate or not, but if so, it could mean that the shadows might happen more with the Tecnis. I don't see them though, and I would think most don't or we would be seeing more complaints.

The Alcon has been shown to have a higher risk of glistenings, which are liquid filled microvacuoles that form within the lens, possibly affecting vision quality. For the Tecnis and Bausch & Lomb's enVista monofocals, the low glistenings potential is considered to be non-significant. You can do a web search on Alcon and glistenings or any of the other IOL manufacturers for more information.

I'm pretty happy with my Tecnis lenses, although I am seeing a diagonal stretch of light from street lamps at night with my right eye. I'm only 3 days out from the surgery though, so I'll see what happens after more time to heal.

Su.An - You mentioned that your first account was deactivated and you lost all of your threads. In case you didn't know this, you can click on your name in one of your old posts and it will show you the threads (with links) you followed. Easy to click through and follow them again.

Would love that to work but I am not able to use same email address. For whatever reason that email is not allowed bow. I can log on to view everything but cannot like or comment on anything with a message saying account has been deactivated. So had to register with entirely different email.

I wonder if I delete that account if I can have access to that email address. But then I would lose view access. I still get people reaching out with a comment or question so I log out and log in under Sue.An2

Very frustrating to say the least. I tried contact us route and explained my situation but no reply back from moderator.

Thanks though for the suggestion. LOL maybe someone flagged me and want me gone for all I know.

I know you're joking, but I'm sure no one would flag you. You've been nothing but kind and helpful in every post you've made. It must be some fluke in the system. I wonder if the same thing happened to nina234, who I believe later went by Lin 59 and Andi77.

yes I remember Nina and recall she had similar situation. I am thinking it may have been due to a link I copied into a reply. Never was accepted by moderator. They sometimes allow links and sometimes they don't. That was last post I entered so can't help but think that maybe that was why. Wish they had just sent me a warning if that was the case. But likely will never know why.