The nanoFLEX IOL is the revolutionary new monofocal lens designed to provide the most exceptional overall visual performance available today. Because of its unique design, it delivers sharp image quality and dramatically improved contrast sensitivity with excellent depth of field. What’s more, if your doctor recommends a “blended vision” fitting technique, nanoFLEX has the potential to provide outstanding vision at all distances.
Have you been diagnosed with cataracts? You’re not alone.
While being diagnosed with cataracts can at first sound daunting, the truth is nearly 25 million people over the age of 40 have them to some degree. Even more comforting is the fact that cataracts have a safe, simple and proven treatment.
What is a cataract?
A cataract is a gradual clouding of the eye’s natural crystalline lens – the part that helps focus incoming light rays on the retina to form an image.
Since a cataract affects the clarity of the lens, it obscures the light from passing through the lens easily. This causes the retina to receive blurred or distorted images. Because the brain cannot receive clear images of objects, vision gradually becomes impaired.
Though cataracts are painless, they can lead to blindness if left untreated. In fact, cataracts are the leading cause of vision loss in people over the age of 55.
Thanks to advances in medical science driven by the needs of an aging population, there are many choices in safe and effective treatments to help correct cataracts. These typically include the implantation of an Intraocular Lens (IOL), a prosthetic lens that is placed inside the eye during surgery. There are several types of IOLs and correction techniques providing different levels of performance:
Standard Monofocal lenses have a single zone of clear focus, usually set to provide distance vision. Typically, patients with monofocal IOLs also use reading glasses to see up close, such as when reading.
Multifocal lenses provide distance and near vision, much like bifocal glasses. Distance and near is provided, however, intermediate vision tends to be limited. In addition Multifocal IOL optics can cause visual disturbances such as halos and glare particularly at night. Multifocal IOLs require a substantial out-of-pocket expense, which is not covered by Medicare and usually not covered by private insurance.
Accommodating lenses provide distance vision and are designed to potentially achieve intermediate and near vision too. Most often times near vision results are less than desirable and many patients still require reading glasses to see up close. Accommodating IOLs require a substantial out-of-pocket expense, which is not covered by Medicare and usually not covered by private insurance.
Monovision fitting is a technique whereby the patient is fitted with a monofocal IOL in one eye to correct distance vision and a different powered monofocal IOL in the other eye to correct near vision. The eyes work together for a combined result. Unfortunately, many patients often experience vision limitations: problems with depth perception, night vision, and intermediate distance vision. There may be a small out-of-pocket expense for various tests that monovision fitting requires. Ask your doctor.
Blended Vision with the nanoFLEX IOL is a recent improvement in fitting techniques that potentially reduces some of the monovision limitations while delivering quality vision across all ranges. In Blended Vision, the nanoFLEX IOL in the dominant eye is set for distance vision, and one in the non-dominant eye is set for near vision. The two eyes work together for a combined result that is clear and comfortable vision at all distances: both distant and near objects appear clear without eyeglasses. The goal of Blended Vision is to enable most distance vision tasks without eyeglasses, and most near vision tasks are also possible without reading glasses, although over-the-counter reading glasses may be necessary to read finer print or in dim light. There may be a small out-of-pocket expense for various tests that monovision fitting requires. Ask your doctor.