Crystalens

A Natural Effect Of Aging

The eye's natural crystalline lens helps us focus on people and objects at varying distances. Unfortunately, as we grow older the human lens becomes more rigid, and without its youthful suppleness, it loses its ability to change focus, creating blurred vision at different distances. This condition - a natural consequence of aging - is called presbyopia. Most people begin experiencing the early effects of presbyopia (such as gradual loss of near vision) in their early 40's.

Clouding of the human lens

As we age, additional degenerative changes occurring to the human crystalline lens can lead to the development of cataracts. By age 65, a large percentage of us will develop a cataract, most often simply causing blurred vision. Frequent complaints of patients presenting with cataracts include difficulty reading fine print and glare driving at night.

In the old days cataract surgery was a surgery to be feared because is usually led to poor outcomes and not infrequently to blindness due to complications. Even a well performed surgery left the patient with thick glasses which were debilitating. Today we offer surgery which is not only much safer but often leaves the patient with better uncorrected vision than the patient had before cataract development. More than 95% of the patients operated by Dr. Liva for cataract surgery end up with 20/20 best corrected vision.The monofocal lens can correct myopia and hyperopia. The Toric IOL can correct preexisting corneal astigmatism. The Restor and Crystalens can provide uncorrected distance, intermediate and near vision.

Crystalens Image

An accommodating lens "flexes" or "accommodates" using the eyes natural muscles to focus on subjects at various distances, delivering a continuous range of vision - near, intermediate and far. Crystalens is the one and only FDA-approved accommodating lens available in the United States. Crystalens can reduce or eliminate your dependence on glasses. More than twice the number of patients implanted with crystalens could see at all distances compared to a standard IOL. In recent studies, the Crystalens outperformed all the other presbyopia correcting implants at intermediate vision. This is especially important for computer use since most computer viewing is performed at a distance where the Crystalens excels.

A standard monofocal IOL is a fixed lens (it doesn't move) which by definition only has a single focal point so it can only deliver clear uncorrected vision at a single distance. A clear focal point for distance is usually chosen leaving intermediate and near vision out of focus and blurred requiring glasses to bring the vision back into a clear focus. The Crystalens offers the patient the ability to reduce dependance on glasses for near vision tasks. The latest Crystalens AO is the fourth generation of the Cystalens making it even better.

Presbyopia

Cataracts

The Premium Lens

The Crystalens Accommodating Intraocular Lens