Visual artist and dancer need good vision, what lense to choose?
Posted , 8 users are following.
I’m recently diagnosed with having cataract. I’m only 52, and working full time as information technology professional. I’m also a visual artist, doing a lot of paintings in my spare time, both portrait and scenic painting, and plan to turn into a professional artist at age 55 after early retirement. On top of that, I’m also a dancer in a local performing group(non professional though), and perform on formal stages several times a year. With all these great things going on in my life, I am now facing the cataract surgery. Honestly, I’m pretty depressed after heard it from my eye doctor two weeks ago.
Now I am here to look for help. With strong desire to see clearly in distance, close up for painting and computer work, and be able to dance on stage, what type of lens I should choose? I’m very near sighted, have astigmatism and already need reading glasses for a few years.
I learned that multi-focus lens have big risk of having glare and halo issue post surgery, and wonder if I choose one of the mono kind, will I still be able to dance with the mono lens? And how either choice will affect my painting, with both distance, mid-range and close up vision need? If I have a distance vision, does that mean I can’t put up make up myself anymore? So many unclear questions.
If you have any input which can relate to this, please share. Many thanks!
0 likes, 34 replies
Guest Autumn1990
Posted
Hi
Sorry to hear you got cataracts in a relative young age, I understand it must be depressing.
I think you will get many different answers, and all of them could be the right choice or not, because in the end it is a personal choice.
And we all have the same doubts about lens choice, but I guess most of us get used to what we get, and then we feel it was the right choice anyway 😃
It is very different from person to person what results people get from a specific lens, because of both differences in our eyes, but also because of our brains adapt very differently.
My own store is a bit different than most, I was born with cataracts, now I am 45, I have got a lens exchange on the one eye a few days ago, and I will have the second eye done in about 4 weeks from now.
I have followed the lenses and available surgery most of my life, and for me now was the time to take the step.
I have chosen the edof type lens, if you live in US or Canada the Symfony lens would be the best choice you have in edof lens, in the rest of the world there is also another edof lens called atLara, which is the one I have just got.
The edof lens will not (in most cases) give you real reading vision, for reading small stuff, or maybe also painting, you would need simple reading glasses.
Midrange (from about 20-25" and upwards) and far distance is great with this lens, and your color perception is great as well, just as great as with a monofocal lens.
If you go for a multifocal (bifocal or trifocal) lens, you will have contrast loss, colors will not be as bright, even that people with multifocal lenses might will say I am wrong, but this is what all studies are showing.
I do have some of the side effects with the edof lens around lights when it is dark, but not enough to bother me, in fact my night vision is 5 times better than with the cataracts, so I really am not bothered by the side effects.
For many people, that have the side effects, it will get better or even disappear within a year because the brain adapts.
Edof lenses are know to have lower risk of side effects compared til multifocals, but it depends a lot from person to person, and the edof lenses are not free of risk from side effects.
Anyway, for me personally I am very happy with the edof lens type, and I almost can not wait getting it in the other eye as well 😃
Best regards
Christian
W-H Autumn1990
Posted
Sorry to hear. I am new here too. Wife got diagnosed at 42, three weeks ago and she had perfect near and far vision and no glasses 😦
She is a super active person. On top of office PC based job she is also group fitness instructor and gives around 12 lessons per week, ranging from yoga, pilates to Bodypump and cardio stuff, we are leaning towards mini-monovision due to it being less risky and maybe because more can be done with it in the future as we age.
She does not drive but she feels multifocal is too risky for her.
My wife thinks that if she had been in Danish Viking's position , she would have gone for multifocal IOLs too. As due to his previously bad vision he had everything to gain.
For someone with good vision the choice becomes even more daunting.
With multifocals the rewards can be high but so are the risks.
I wish you all the best in this tough time. The people here are very nice 😃
Sue.An2 Autumn1990
Posted
So sorry to hear you've got cataracts. I was 53 when I was diagnosed with them both eyes and had to have the surgery. The good thing is you have time to research and come to a decision on lens selection. If your eyes can be corrected with contact lenses or glasses I highly recommend you hold off on surgeries till your vision can no longer be corrected that t way.
I agree with everything Christian mentioned in his post and I too went with an EDOF (extended depth of focus) lens. Living in Canada Symfony was and still is the only EDOF lens available. For whatever reason I have got good reading distance and can read from 11 inches. I don't wear glasses - have a pair of +1.25 readers for reading prescription bottles and other fine print or even if eyes tired from extended periods of reading or low light conditions.
With any lens there are variables that affect the result aside from a good surgeon and skill. Pupil and eye size seem to play a factor. No doctor is able to guarantee you won't need glasses but premium lenses do generally make one less glasses or contact dependent.
I needed and wanted more range of vision and chose a premium lens accepting the trade-off of night vision as there are more halos associated with premium lenses.
Wish you well and peace as you weed through the options. Would recommend you get several consults to find a good surgeon that will go indepth with you on your options and what would be best in your situation.
janus381 Autumn1990
Posted
Autumn, I'll reply briefly. You can look up my experience in the discussion I started about my experience with PanOptix tri-focal (not currently available in the US, but expected to be approved "soon").
When I was diagnosed, I too was worried about all the articles about dissatisfaction with multi-focals, and was thinking about EDOF lens like Symfony before my first consultation. I'm in Canada, and at the clinic I go to the "premium lens option" that they use used to be the Symfony EDOF, but starting almost 2 years ago switched to the Alcon PanOptix, which is the latest and greatest tri-focal, as their premium lens based on great feedback from Europe, and they have been very pleased with results with patients.
Many of the negative articles about multi-focals are based on US experience, and in the US the only multi-focals that are currently approved are older generation bi-focals.With tri-focals, you should still expect some artifacts and some lower contrast in dim light with tri-focals, but they are much better than the older bi-focals.
If you are in the US, the expectation is that the Alcon PanOptix tri-focal should be approved in the US "soon". (this is from one article I found). The best EDOF approved in the US is, will likely continue to be the Symfony.
Then there is the mono-vision or mini-monovision option (have one eye for distance and one for intermediate, and probably use glasses for reading), which works well for many people, but ideally you want to test that with contact lenses first.
Many things to consider, and pros and cons with each option.
janus381
Posted
Autumn: I found a good recent article that may interest you. About a visual artist in Canada, who recently got tri-focals.
Search: Advances in eye care give visual artist new focus
It's from a Canadian newspaper, and my require registration for free preview, or just read the cached version.
janus381
Posted
Typed the above quickly from home.
Better search term to find the very recent article about an artist who got the most current tri-focals, search for:
"Advances in eye care give visual artist new focus Globe and Mail"
click on the cached version of the web page to avoid having to register.
Sue.An2 janus381
Posted
Thanks Janus going to search that article - I too am Canadian - had my surgeries in NB 2 years ago when Symfony newly on market. You must be in a major city where they ate now implanting newer IOLs. I am pleased though with my vision with Symfony.
janus381 Sue.An2
Posted
Yes, I'm in Toronto. I'm very happy so far with the PanOptix, and also happy that they cataract surgeons in the area all seem to simply the choices somewhat -- basic, improved (toric), or premium. And will recommend what's best in each category based on your measurements.
In the discussion I started to share my experience, xen42188 asked for more details about which clinic and surgeon as he is in Toronto too. Looking at xen42188 post history, his surgeon first recommended the PanOptix as an option to him 17 months ago! But he was not in immediate need for surgery and was waiting to hear about others experiences.
It seems that in Toronto, the surgeons have replaced the Symfony EDOF with the PanOptix tri-focal as the recommended choice in the premium IOL category.
Also, for Autumn's reference: found another experience from a professional Australian artist who gives a lot more detail about his perspective as a fine art painter with a tri-focal (his post seems older, so he had the AT LISA Tri-focal, which part of the latest generation of tri-focals, but is one of the older versions of tri-focal.)
Search: "John Lovett seeing clearly cataract surgery" to find his perspective as a painter.
It would seem to me that for those in US considering a premium lens option, the choice at present would be the Symfony edof, at least until the PanOptix is approved for use in the US.
For Canada, PanOptix is the best premium option. Zeiss lens are unlikely to be available in North America anytime soon.
For Europe and rest of world, it's`probably a toss-up between the latest AT LARA edof (released fall 2017), and the PanOptix tri-focal (released fall 2015).
Sue.An2 janus381
Posted
I would imagine US may want to consider going to Toronto - their dollar goes a lot further here!
janus381 Sue.An2
Posted
Americans coming to Canada for cataract surgery would be bad for the patient and bad for Canadians!
So to all the US patients .... please look aware but north to Canada if you want access to consider cataract surgery outside the US!!!
Sue.An2 janus381
Posted
LOL you ate likely spot on. It is a long wait for anything medical. Waited 18 months for an ENT and wish I could have got to see someone sooner. Results to my hearing test finally in and got a call today f for a revisit. Bad a terrible flu Jan 2018 - fluid in my ears wouldn't ho away. Have hearing loss so will see now if I have yo get hearing aids. First cataracts and now hearing in my 50s.
Obviously I didn't consider wait times increasing if suddenly we had an influx of additional patients in Canada.
Guest Sue.An2
Posted
Interesting to see the difference from country to country.
In Denmark we are all covered by a health insurance by the state, and it works quite well, the public local doctors and hospitals are very up to date and efficient.
People here compliant too about waiting lists, but in most health areas the state have issued a "treatment guarantee" that means, that if the public hospitals are not able to see you within one or two month, depending on the type of illness, you can choose a private clinic, and it will be payed by the state also.
I can see we have really nothing to complaint about 😃
Private clinics often have very short waiting list, they are mainly used by people that have their own private health insurance or by people who have money to pay for their own treatment without insurance.
I went to 4 different private eye clinics to ask them about cataracts surgery, because the public hospitals are only offering monofocal lenses.
At the private clinic I chose, i was first at one examination by a special trained optician, then the next week I saw the surgeon, and I felt good about it, he asked me if we should go ahead and book time for the surgery, I said yes, and I was booked for surgery 10 days later, mainly because we had to wait for delivery of the lenses.
So I see it is very different here than Canada, and people from US are very welcome here, most of the Danes even speaks a little bit English 😃
janus381 Guest
Posted
Canada has very complex rules for health care. We have universal health care, but in general, most politicians and it seems most people don't like the idea of the "rich" being able to "jump the queue" by going private.
I'm no expert (so what I type may not be 100% accurate), and the rules are slightly different by province, but in general, individuals in Canada cannot pay for private health care for anything that is an emergency or life-threatening, or medically necessary.
We can pay for things that are not medically necessary, such as laser PRK or Lasik vision correction -- so there are many private laser correction clinics, and the most well paid ophthalmologist will be the ones doing laser vision correction. Some of these private laser clinics also offer cataract surgery, for which the government will pay for the medically necessary part, and the individual can pay for any options (such as premium IOL). But we there is no option to pay private to have shorter wait times as basically cataract surgery is part of the public system and is medically necessary.
I know some provinces are trying to allow more private clinics in areas like medical imaging (e.g. MRIs), but there is often an outcry that loosening the rules will weaken the public system. Many Canadian do go to the US for things like MRIs.
Guest janus381
Posted
Yes. I see the point about every life should be worth the same, despite how much money each person have.
And really, the public hospitals works quite well, even that most people can easily afford a private health insurance, most people choose not to have one, because the public system is quite good.
If people want to pay for their own cancer treatment or something like that they can, but very few does that, even the Queen of Denmark uses the public hospitals - although I do not think she had to share room with anyone else, when she recently had her knee fixed 😃
I guess no system is perfect, neither is the Danish system, but 18 month wait as Sue mention is crazy, something is not working at all in that case I think.
One of my friends went to see an ear specialist some time ago, I think he waited a couple of weeks, and he was annoyed by that wait, but I can see he really had nothing to be annoyed about 😃
janus381 Guest
Posted
But many in Canada are too ideological about no "private" and no "two-tier" medical system, because the reality is if more private were permitted, that would increase the number of facilities and also reduce wait times in the public system. And also, the reality is that being next to the US, anyone with funds can go to the US for diagnostics or even treatment, and many politicians who would not support more private as a policy will not hesitate to fly to the US if it's their own health at risk.
So no perfect answer, but I think the current answer in Canada is too far at one extreme.
Sue.An2 Guest
Posted
Complex is an apt way to describe our Canadian healthcare system. But there are a lot of flaws in it. The rich and famous do skip the queues and I doubt any have had to wait 14+ hours in emergency like the rest of us.
We are seeing more private clinics in NB for MRIs and other types of scans. Wait time otherwise is 6 months min for an MRI. Wish my health insurance through employer would cover MRIs etc but they won't if covered by universal medicare. It would reduce wait times for all if they reimbursed some procedures in private sector.
Sue.An2 janus381
Posted
Right you are. The rich always find a way for faster treatment or go to USA. Canada cannot afford it's present system and I do think we will see a 2 tier system or something like that in 5 to 10 years. I do think it will lead to better overall care and shorter wait times for more people. The other thing needed is a structural change in how they treat emergencies. I get that heart and head injuries are prioritized but lacerations and broken bones can't wait 14 hours. Twice my daughter needed stitches and by the time we got in wound had healed enough that stitches wouldn't help. Wish triage had just told us they were too busy and sent us home. We need more nurse practitioners and separate emergency care for non acute emergencies.
W-H Sue.An2
Posted
MRI for non serious sport related issue I got within few days here in Switzerland.
Everyone by law has to take out private basic health insurance here.
The private health insurance companies are regulated by the government.
If someone wants additional goodies like private room in the hospital then they have to take out supplementary insurance.
Basic cataract and basic IOLs will be covered by the basic insurance.
Sue.An2 W-H
Posted
That is better service than we have. Everyone has our national medicare but I have health insurance I pat premiums on through work. 5 years ago I injured my shoulder in Florida and my private insurance through work paid for my visit to a clinic a d meds I needed to manage pain but said I had to get MRI in Canada. When I came back to Canada was told 6 month wait for MRI but they covered my PT so went for physio for several weeks.