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Symfony lens comparison to naked eye

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rpk0925
rpk0925

As a brief background, I have a Symfony lens implanted in my right (dominant) eye and my God given eyeball on the left side. I'm trying to decide between having another Symfony lens implanted or a standard lens implanted in the other (left) eye, or go for a complete lens exchange. It has been 4-1/2 months since my first eye was worked on.

A couple of nights ago, I was in a theater watching an animated film (Ethel & Ernest, which was great). As I was watching the movie, I would occasionally alternately cover one eye and then the other, to see if I could notice any difference in what I was seeing from one eye to the other. I was very surprised to find out that my original eye produced noticeably richer colors and more detail than the Symfony eye. In fact, some of the fine black line work could be seen with my original eye, but wasn't there at all with the Symfony eye. I found this kind of disturbing. (Also, my original eye was seeing sharper than the Symfony eye). My question is: Is the loss of richness and color a by-product of the Symfony lens or could that be what my natural eye would be seeing even if I didn't have an implant? Also, if it is a by-product of the Symfony lens ... if I went for a lens exchange (to a standard lens), could I expect to see the richness and detail come back again (or is it lost forever)? Thank you.

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  • pg128
    pg128 rpk0925

    Posted

    I think there are a couple of factors here,  and as someone that went for monofocal IOLs for the best sharpness I can give the alternative thoughts on lens choice.

    I think the richness of colors in your natural lens s most likely due to the yellowing of your natural lens with age. I work in color sensitive work and now I have IOls instead of my 50+ natural lenses colors as so much whiter but for some that may seem less rich (like cooler white bulbs vs warm color ones).  I like the less colorful but more natural view I now have, but that's mostly because I know what it most realistic.  For example many people buy overly saturated color TVs as they look so good even though the colors are false.

    Symfony lenses cannot provide the level of sharpness that monofocal IOLs can, but then can give a good result over a wider focal range.  This is one of the reasons I went with monofocals after years of various multifocal contacts where the compromise is obvious.  However I still wonder if I made the right choice as I have great sharpness but only over a very narrow range.  I often wear multifocal contact lenses over the top to solve this but then I am back to the same compromise, although I can choose day by day.

    In summary there are no perfect IOLs and we choose our compromise.  If you are otherwise happy with vision from your Symfony IOL then that's good enough and that's something I am not with my monofocals at the moment as they didn't hit target which is less critical with Symfony.

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An pg128

      Posted

      Agree with your assessment that there is no perfect IOL.  Least not yet - maybe in years to come.  Very difficult for surgeon to hit the target and even if they do the IOL shifts a bit before settling and you can end up either way .25 off initial target.  Then the power comes in .50 vs .25 diopters like glasses or contacts - that too plays a factor.

      I had no idea about impact of aging on colours- thank you for providing that insight.

  • susan44499
    susan44499 rpk0925

    Posted

    I have monovision IOLs. ( done 4 and 3 months ago) and I didn’t notice more vibrant colors afterward  like my husband did with his Symfony. 
    • michael74313
      michael74313 susan44499

      Posted

      Susan - it might depend on how bad your cataract was and how much it affected the field of vision.  For some whose cataracts are very advanced, any IOL can make a big difference in colors and clarity.

       

    • derek40125
      derek40125 susan44499

      Posted

      Same here. I had a multifocal and was expecting vibrant colors based on so many reports and the result was really no change at all (in terms of color, vision was great). It just depends on the type of cataract you had.

      My other eye is still pretty good and colors look exactly the same between my two eyes so I think that is the most important thing.

    • vlad873
      vlad873 michael74313

      Posted

       I was with clear lens before the operation , and with the Symphony toric multi focal extended focus range  could not see any difference in colors noticeable. Also  they claimed that there may be a bit of a loss of contrast and sensitivity . For the  contrast i can not make much difference ,  with sensitivity at low light may be a bit but nothing which is troubling .
  • vasily48550
    vasily48550 rpk0925

    Posted

    This may also have something to do with watching the movie in a dark theater. In the darkness, the eye dilates and you get less depth of focus. The simulation of the USAF target image presented in paper "Laboratory evaluation of the optical properties of two extended-depth-of-focus intraocular lenses" shows that the quality of vision with Symfony IOL depends on the aperture and is the best when the aperture is smaller. However, this effect is the worst when defocus is 0.5-1.0D and is not substantial when defocus is 0, which is distance vision if the lens are set for distance. In either case, it is interesting if you can see a similar difference in the daylight.

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