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Symfony vs Restor 2.5D

Posted , 11 users are following.

derek40125
derek40125

Hello:

I'm a few weeks away from making my IOL selection (and about 8 weeks before surgery) and I'm going back and forth between the low-add Restor 2.5D (my surgeon's choice), Symfony (mainly due to this forum), and a monofocal IOL coupled with a multi-focal contact (I'm currently trialing multifocal contacts in my left eye where the cataract doesn't yet affect my vision). What I'm finding is that there are almost no patient reviews of the Restor 2.5D (although plenty for the 3 and 4 version) while there are hundred of posts like the numerous ones on this forum regarding the Symfony.

There are many clinical studies but many of these are sponsored and I was hoping to hear comments from more patients who actually had this Restor. What I'm expecting is comparable distance vision to Symfony and more of a peak at the intermediate range and slightly lower contrast sensitivity. I'm also expecting small and prominent halos (Restor) vs less prominent but larger concentric rings (Symfony). My main thought here is that these are both popular lens choices so why am I not able to find more than a handful of patient comments on the Restor 2.5D? I tend to feel that people seek out forums like this and post their comments when they have had issues with the product but rarely when everything is fine. Could it be that there just aren't a lot of problems with this newer Restor? Looking in detail at the literature it's nor purely just a lower-add version of their prior product, it seems like many of the design choices were made specifically to improve distance/contrast and reduce the effects of halos. 

I'm hoping that someone on this board has the Restor 2.5 and can comment or, alternatively, found some actual patient reviews that you can direct me to. I have found blogs and other posts from surgeons and have not found a single one who isn't happy with the new Restor but I have found a few who aren't happy with the Symfony. Although,  I can't help but wonder if this is partly due to familiarity with the type of lens, with Synfony being a rather different and new product.

Any comments or research anyone else has found? Thanks in advance. 

 

0 likes, 24 replies

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  • robert20416
    robert20416 derek40125

    Posted

    I can't really help much with your question but I'll share what I heard from doctor's words in my own search of IOL for my cataract surgery which is scheduled for next Monday. I've seen three eye surgeons. The first two offer the options of monofocal and specialty lenses. For specialty lens, the first one recommend Symfony, whereas the second one Restor(2.5). The third surgeon ditches all specialty and recommends monofocal. My feeling is every surgeon has their own favorite dessert, depending on who you ask.... 

    The second surgeon told me that Restor 2.5 is much better than 3.0 in terms of artifacts. 

  • Sue.An
    Sue.An derek40125

    Posted

    Hi Derek - it is highly possible you’d be satisfied with all 3 solutions.  If you are liking your surgeon I would go with what he recommends or better yet would he have any patients you could speak to that have the Restor 2.5?

    Symfony was out about 6 months where I live in Canada so I was fortunate to talk to a patient who was one of the first to have them implanted and in talking to her found out it was my surgeon that had done her cataract surgery.

    I gather from your comments you only need one eye done and you don’t have a cataract in other eye?   You might want to consider a monofocal for distance and by the time your other eye needs doing you could likely find out more info on Restor for when it comes time to do 2nd eye or maybe something better comes along.

    All the best.

    • derek40125
      derek40125 Sue.An

      Posted

      Hello Sue An:

      I'm 51, so a similar age to you. My "good" eye does have a cataract, it's just that I don't notice it yet and haven't noticed any degradation in my vision in the 2 yrs since they discovered this. The right eye is much worse. The Dr. does want to do both eyes a few months apart although I think I am going to ask to delay the 2nd surgery another month or two unless I'm overwhelmingly satisfied with the first surgery. He wants to do both eyes and, from what I've read, neuroadaptation would be better with both eyes having multifocals. I'm not sure if a multifocal contact in the "good" eye would help in this regard. I think that may be less of an issue with Symfony due to its technology. 

      Not being able to "preview" the night effects of the different lenses makes this a very challenging choice. The pictures created by David Taylor's son which are linked several times on this website are very good but I am guessing that they don;t do a great job conveying the relative intensities of his Restor Eye and his Symfony eye. I've already decided that I'm willing to continue using reading glasses for close work, so a low-add multifocal or Symfony seems to suit me. I was going to go for the Symfony until I found this site. It's the large size of those concentric rings so many of you are seeing that I'm worried about. I'm anticipating halos with the Restor although they should be pretty small. I was not able to induce similar halos with multifocal contacts (probably due to their design difference) but they too have some weird night artifacts and I'm actually OK with the tradeoff as I think the overall size is small and my contrast sensitivity is still good. 

      If I do opt for Restor, I will make sure to post back on this site with a review so that someone in the future searching on "Restor 2.5 review" will actually get a meaningful "hit". Thanks, 

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An derek40125

      Posted

      Since your post tried my best to see if anyone is posting their experience with Restor 2.5.    Does seem strange no one is posting g about it so your post should you opt for that would be welcome for many.    Looks like it was released similar time in N.A as Symfony.  Previous generations of Restor seemed to produce a lot more online complaints than Symfony - so hoping the 2.5 version is better.  

      Yes the concentric circles are large.  I would say on brake lights they extend out beyond the car.

      The intensity of the lights for me has lessened - not sure brain has adapted or they really have subsided.  With certain lights I notice them more others they are faint and I really have to look for them.

      Had our first major snowfall over the weekend and it was snowing in my way home - which is pitch dark after work this time of year.  No white lines as streets were snow covered and had only the tracks in front of me driving home.  All was good as I wondered about the contrast sensitivity in this situation.  

      I do know the pics you described as I too looked at the drawings of vision simulation with Symfony and Restor.

      Hope you get as good near vision as I got.  It’s 3 1/2 months since my surgery and I haven’t needed glasses - after wearing them all my life it’s been a nice benefit.

      Best wishes to you - we will be looking forward to your post about the Restor 2.5

  • at201
    at201 derek40125

    Posted

    I have no personal experience with the Restor 2.5D does not offer any benefit), but the reason for my preference of the Symfony lens over the Restor 2.5D (when I chose mine about a year back) was that having a continuous focus from the far distance to intermediate distance was more important to me than having 3 good focal distances at far, intermediate, and near distances with drop-off of good focus (or some vision blurriness) between those three distances. I already had my left eye set for many years for reading with a monofocal lens, was used to monovision, and did not care about the ability of the Restor 2.5D to also provide near vision. Your requirements are obviously different. So, you need to figure out the best combination for you.

    Please remember that there is no issue with combining a monofocal lens with a Symfony lens (combining a.monofocal with Restor 2.5D does not provide any benefit).  I  have no issue because of mixing a Symfony lens for distance with a monofocal lens for reading. That combination provides me a good day time vision at all distances.

    I do have night vision issues issues such as seeing multiple circles with the Symfony lens. My recommendation to others, based on my experience, is to have a monofocal lens for far distance in the dominant eye and a Symfony lens set for intermediate distance (which also provides good near vision) in the non-dominant eye. This should provide good vision at all distances with much less night vision issues. That will have many advantages over having a Restor 2.5D in each eye.

    • at201
      at201

      Posted

      Sorry. The words, "does not offer any benefit)"  were incorrectly pasted in the first sentence of my response.

  • sunny68454
    sunny68454 derek40125

    Posted

    I have read in different forums that when doing the first eye, it is always best to go with monofocal set to distance. Depending on how much near vision you are getting or not getting, you can either choose Symfony or another monofocal set to distance or another monofocal set to near. I suggest you go with that. 

    I have Symfony in one eye and no cataract in the other. I wish I had known this before my surgery. 

    • derek40125
      derek40125 sunny68454

      Posted

      Hello Sunny:

      I red through your recent Symfony posts. I'm really sorry about the problems you are experiencing. I don;t think I could handle one eye monofocal and the other multifocal/EDOF. I could probably deal with a very small difference, but no more than 0.5D. I tried doing this with contacts for a few weeks and I found that I constantly would open and close each eye to compare my vision. The same thing happened once the cataract in my right eye started progressing much quicker than the left eye. What I have done lately is to have my (absolutely fantastic) optometrist trial several different types of multifocal contacts and we have found some that now work pretty well. Currently I can read the 20/13 line on the eye chart with my normal contacts. With the latest multifocal trial I can still read the 20/15 line and everything is just a little less "crisp." I don't get near vision but I am able to use the computer for the first time in 2 yrs without glass and I can kind of read my cell phone (have to hold it pretty far). Glare and contrast at night are noticeably worse with these lenses. I'm personally willing to accept this trade off.

      My "conservative" option would be a monofocal IOL set for distance and then I'd continue to wear multifocal contacts (with a 0D plus add). The advantage over Symfony/Restor would be that if I absolutely wanted the best possible distance vision, I could simply not wear the contacts that day (or evening) or maybe wear one. However, if the results of Symfony or Restor 2.5D would be similar to what I'm experiencing now with the contacts, I'd definitely opt for that as the "new" ability to shed glasses for computer and cell phone use is quite amazing to me now. 

      I get my detailed eye measurements on Monday so I will report back with the surgeon's comments and any other risk factors I have. At this point, I'm probably evenly split still among these three options, although Sue An's and other comments about the size of the concentric artifacts do scare me as I know that the halos through the Restor should be pretty small (although more prominent). 

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An derek40125

      Posted

      I too struggled with opting for 2 different lenses monofocal mixed with a multifocal or EDOF lens although many on the forums are satisfied with that arrangement.  My surgeon mentioned the EDOF work best together so that weighed into my decision.  That and I do suffer migraines so didn’t want to have 2 different views through my eyes.

      Has your opthamologist made any comments about what they think best option for you?

      Have to agree - although didn’t put a lot of thought prior to surgery in being glasses free.  It had been a nice plus since wearing them most my life.  

    • derek40125
      derek40125 Sue.An

      Posted

      I'll let you know next week. Monday I go for pre-surgery eye measurements. Here's one funny thing that I never thought of. I'm not supposed to wear contacts lenses for 3 days before they do this, other doctors recommend a week, so I decided to err on the side of caution and I stopped contacts on Monday. What I hadn't thought about though was how I would function at work all week. I've worn contacts practically every day for 30 years. With presbyopia I now have ~50 pairs of reading glasses but my "glasses free" focus point is maybe 6" to 8" from my face. With glasses this means I can't use a computer. I quickly ordered some -1.0 and - 2.0 glasses from Amazon but they aren't strong enough and no same day shipping is available on stronger pairs. I do have several in the -3.0 to - 4.0 range coming tomorrow but for the past two days I've used rubber bands to attach reading glasses to my normal glasses. I look rediculous. If anyone else ever reads this, plan ahead!

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An derek40125

      Posted

      Too funny - it’s what makes life interesting and one definitely needs a sense of humour to manage.

      Yes I had read about contacts and how they can mess up measurements of the eye.  I think o I too would have erred on side of caution and taken the contacts out sooner.  

      Here’s hoping those other specs arrive soon - or you may want to take s few days vacation!   I had to go around with one lens poked out for 6 weeks betwey surgeries.  Not many noticed  at work - but bottom portion were rimless so that likely helped the effect.

    • derek40125
      derek40125 Sue.An

      Posted

      I have decided to go with the Restor 2.5D and have surgery scheduled for mid February. My surgeon does both Symfony and Restor lenses and his opinion was that the outcomes are similar with the differences overall between the two pretty minor to most people. He does have a lot more experience with the Restor lenses and has never had to remove the 2.5 from any patient, so that sold it for me. As Robert mentioned above, a particular surgeon's experience with a specific lens is probably more important in terms of outcome than the lens itself. Since I've yet to find a single in-depth patient review of this exact lens, I will write about my experience and outcome(s) on this forum once I've gotten to that point so that future people searching will find something. If anyone else reads this before Mid-February and has other comments, I would welcome them. Thanks. 

    • Sue.An
      Sue.An derek40125

      Posted

      Yes I am sure others will really appreciate have details of your outcome.  Agree completely the surgeon is key and you are better off going with what’s in their wheelhouse for best outcome.

      I wish you all the best and look forward to learning more about the Restor 2.5

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