Symfony lenses

There are over 20 milion cataract sugeries a year worldwide, and over 480,000 with premium lenses.

This means that 97.6% of patients get monofocals. Other options seem to be extremely unpopular. Ophthalmologist Uday Devgan quotes a similar, although less extreme number: 85% of his patients get monofocals.

Where did you go for your surgery? How much was the Symfony lens? I live in Michigan and my Dr said $3800 for the lens. I have a standard distance in my left eye. It's just so so but that's because of macular pucker.

My surgeon in the Seattle area was much more reasonable. The extra charge for getting the Symfony Toric lens (beyond the the monofocal lens charges mostly covered by Medicare) were $2200, out of which $900 were passed on to the hospital. In addition, any LASIK enhancement required for vision correction after the cataract surgery was included as a no-cost part of the package.

The $900 passed on to the hospital covered the additional purchase price of the Symfony Toric lens, which was procured by the hospital.

I had both eyes done about three weeks apart, I too live in Michigan and had them done north of Grand Rapids, by Holland Eye. Like most folks... insurance paid for the cataract removal, total out of pocket costs were 5600.00 for the Symfony Tecnis Lens placed in both eyes. That includes any tweaking that needs to be done in post opt appointments. I have at least one more laser treatment to correct a small amount of astigmatism.

Thanks for the quick reply. Ilive closer to Frankenmuth and my surgery will be in Flint. I'm not sure what to do as I had my left eye done 2.5 years ago and they used the lens for seeing distance. My Dr said the cost of the symfony would be 3800 and that's just a bit too much for me. They are talking about doing a lens with intermediate distance for this eye. I have to decide soon as surgery is in a month.

Okay, on reading another message here,   Doctor Snyder lets you make payments...  each eye is 2800.  Your payment would be affordable.  Funny,  they don't even set a billing date,  so far I have sent in a sufficent amount monthly.  They do have two types of paying...  and they would like it paid within 6 months.  There is no pressure whatsoever,  and they answer their phone, (no phone tree),  Just wonderful people to work with.  Do watch the video...  it is very interesting.  

Irrespective of the surgeon you may end up choosing, the suggestion of using a Symfony lens set for the best focus at the intermediate distance of 32 to 40 inches is a good advice (assuming that you are getting a good distance vision with the left eye). With this combination, you should have good vision at reading, intermediate as well as the far distances without most of the night vision issues associated with the Symfony lens.

I would definitely suggest shopping around since prices for surgery seem to vary dramaticall. You might  even considering whether to travel to get the lens if the cost difference is worth it.

Unfortunately I don't know what  US prices are like. When I got the  Symfony  in Dec. 2014 it wasn't approved in the US (or even Canada or Mexico) yet so I had to go to Europe to get it. I'd already been planning to travel to get a trifocal if the US didn't approve one, which they still haven't, and then the Symfony came out and I went for that. I wound up getting the Symfony in the Czech Republic in both eyes for less than my high deductible would have been here, including travel. Depending on whether you want laser surgery (I didn't), or need astigmatism correction (I didn't), its perhaps $1200-$2000/eye at various clinics there  total for surgery&lens (I got a discount being the first patient to get it there so it was a bit lower).

 

I went to the dollar store and bought a pair of readers at +150. I popped out the lens on the left and am going to wear these for a few days to see how I adapt. The nurse told me he was going to use a +150 or 175. I get slightly dizzy if I turn my head too fast. I will see how I do in a few days. Thanks for the advise.

Thanks but circumstances prevent me from traveling to do this. Plus, my insurance will cover the cost of surgery and post op check up and one new pair of glasses, all at no cost to me as I have already paid my deductible by having the vitrectomy and peel done in January. 

As I mentioned in another post to you, the test you are doing is actually combining the 2 concerns which I had in one package: the monovision and the double vision due to the different size images due to the different  prescriptions for the 2 eyes inglasses. Thus, this is a more difficult combination.for the brain to deal with than what you will have with the monofocal set for reading and the prescription glasses used for distance. Obviously, if this works, that will be great. If it does not and you want to give a more fair test for monovision, you may have to try wearing a soft contact lens of +1.5 in the right eye (unlike glasses, contact lenses don't cause the discrepancy in the  image size).

I am not sure what you are trying to tell me. Are you saying my test with the dollar store glasses won't work? I have even thought to try to put on my distance glasses over top of these, but the problem, as I see it, even if I could physically do it, is that the prescription would only be correct for the left eye (the one already operated on) and not necessarily the other eye. So far, about 2 or 3 hours into the test, it seems to be working other than I KNOW I will need distance glasses. I am not sure what you mean by double vision. I am not seeing double, but I suspect that's not exactly what you mean. 

If you are doing fine with the modified dollar store reading glasses, that is great! You won't have any problem with the monofocal lens set for near distance in the right eye.

Only if you were not doing fine, I would have said that you should not give up trying a monofocal lens set for near distance in the right eye. Right now, you have a prescription of 1.5D between the left and the right eye, which causes noticable difference in the sizes of images, which the brain receives from the 2 eyes. Some times, the brain can't handle that difference and one may see double vision or just feel that there is something not right with the vision. You won't get a similar change in the the sizes of the images when you get the monofocal lens in the right eye so that it would be a lot easier to deal with. So, if you are doing fine with the modified store glasses, you would be even better with the monofocal lens for reading in the right eye.

Thank you

You were mentioning a cost of $3800 out of pocket extra for the IOL (since insurance doesn't cover premium IOLs), but there are likely other places that'd do it for much less even in the US. Most places usually price their premium IOLs around the same, but your other post suggested the Crystalens was half that at $1900  (making me wonder if they had a glitch and the Symfony price was for 2 eyes)? which is why I figured that if a local place didn't have a better price, if you couild manage to travel within the US you might find a price that is better even including travel costs. But I know not everyone can swing that, or wish to go through the added stress.

 I figured most  people wouldn't travel out of the country for surgery but mentioned it for anyone reading the thread who might since you can get it done in the Czech Republic from high quality docs for less than that including travel (though perhaps not if you aren't traveling by yourself, I went by myself). 

Good point. I guess I should ask why Symfony is so much higher. Didn't think about that. So far, my experiment with the dollar store glasses is working ok

 I will note that if the cataract is noticeably degrading vision then of course it isn't a prefect test. Also the range of vision you have in from there may be different with a monofocal IOL than it is now, depending on how much remaining accommodation you have in that eye. A monofocal IOL may be less than near than you are getting in this test. A test with a contact lens might be a bit closer to what the result would be like than trying it with glasses, but it'd still not be fully accurate due to the cataract and any remaining acommodation.

What the other poster was referring to is the issue that if you have different lens powers in glasses (in this case 0 power in one and +1.5 in the other),  that each eye is seeing a difference size image. Glasses  change the size of an image, even if most people don't notice it when both powers are the same.How much they change image size depends on the power of the lens. If the image sizes are almost the same, then your brain merges the images and you don't consciously realize there is a difference. If the image size is tooo different then your brain may struggle with it. However now your experiment has  a lens power difference of only 1.5 diopters, which is within the range most people adapt to. For those curious to google it, the  issue is anisometropia (two different lens powers) leading to aniseikonia (two different image sizes leading to problems merging the images). Except it isn't an issue in your case it sounds like.

 

I am in route from returning from my second laser treatment on my left eye. I think the extra cost is to cover the surgeon, and other post operative costs that they obsorb as all future tweaks are free from costs... as long as they are part of the Symfony plan. I have just received a laser tweaking so to speak, to remove the astigmatism that was not all removed at the first surgery. This is why I think it's best to have you eyes done as close to home as possible. From February to today... I have had many appointments and my vision continues to get better. I felt it reasonable at 2800.00 per eye that I paid out of pocket for both eyes.

re: "This is why I think it's best to have you eyes done as close to home as possible."

Its possible to have followup visits with a local surgeon even if you travel to get surgery. It partly depends I guess on whether you get a package deal including followups, or if they are done seperately anyway, so that is important to consdier.

In my case I was fortunate enough to not have enough astigmatism preop to worry about so the odds were high I'd only need routine checkups afterwards and not additional treatment . There are higher odds of needing further treatment for those with astigmatism. (e.g. one meta-study suggests those getting a toric IOL have a 29% chance of winding up with > 0.5D residual astigmatism, which most people would want corrected). 

Sharon, even though you have 20 20 almost 20 15, my question is are the letters you read in sharp focus like they are or used to be with noline progressive glasses.  I thought I was getting Symfony but surgeon used Tecnis ZLB00.  Although surgon says my vision is 20 20 now in that eye, everything is slightly blury, especially noticible when reading, sweet spot at about 14 to18 inches. If i use only my remaining eye with glasses, the print is razor sharp.  Surgery was two weeks ago.  Now I have to decide if I will make sure surgeon puts in Symfony  in right eye or use  sameTechnis or similar model that will help more with length reading computer.

I am only a few weeks from the last laser treatment... I hardly notice halos and starbursts now, which really weren't that bad to begin with. Unless I do my macro beading... which is up close about 6 inches away... I have good vision. Before my Tecnis Symfony lens, I had progressive lens that were a pain. They were always sliding down, getting scratched and I needed updated prescriptions every 3 years. So... the Tecnis Symfony Lens are wonderful in my case. Then again, I am not that hard to please.

It is terrible that your surgeon gave you the multifocal focal lens Tecnis ZLB00 instead of the Tecnis Symfony lens, which you were expecting. The Symfony lens has its own night vision issue, but nothing as bad as the multifocal lenses. It also provides one better intermediate to distance vision than the multifocal lens.

As I mentioned in one of my posts above, I have a Symfony Toric lens in my right eye for distance and a monofocal lens in my left eye for close-up. With this combination, I have good day vision at all distances beyond 16 inches. I wish that my night vision were better, the main issue being the seeing of multiple concentric circles or halos around lights at night time. But a multifocal lens will be the last lens which I would recommend to any one.

My personal experience with the multifocal lenses has really been with the multifocal contact lenses a few years back. I was so unhappy with the vision clarity with those that I switched back to using monovision within a week. Unfortunately, it is not that easy to change the IOLs in the eyes.

Who did you see in Seattle? 

I have sent you the name of my surgeon in a private post to you.

Meant to say "Private Message" instead of 'Private Post"

Hi at201,

May i get your surgeon name too? i am living in Seattle and want to have Symfony sergery. thanks.

My surgeon was Dr. Sharpe in Bellevue.

Check also with Dr. Barloon in Seattle. Also, my friend hired a private nurse, Nurse Quiana, who drove her to and from the clinic, stayed with her for a couple of days, cooked, cleaned, and even walked her dog while she was recovering. She's a bit pricey but worth every penny. Good luck

Do you mind sharing who your surgeon was? I'm in Seattle and would like to look into symfony for my cataracts.

My surgeon was Dr. Sharpe in Bellevue. I will definitely recommend him.