Cataract Surgery with ReStor Lens Implants

[hornblower]

I am having Cataract Surgery on July 27, and my surgeon is recommending the implant of ReStor lenses in each eye.

My problem has been seeing the front sight without using glasses.

When I use glasses they slip down or fog up, and I can't shoot very well.

Does anyone have experience with this surgery and the implants, and how did if effect your shooting?

Thank you.

[ItsanSKS]

While I have no experience with this form of surgery, I just wanted to stop in and wish you all the best, and a speedy recovery. 

-ItsanSKS

[shoot4score]

I don't know about that particular implant but I have had the surgery and it's the best thing that ever happened to my shooting.  I no longer need prescription glasses to see the front sight or to see in general for that matter.  About the only thing I really need glasses for is reading although they do help my distance vision also.  just make sure that the surgeon understands that you are a shooter and what you want in vision correction.

Steve

[HPT]

My Mother had the surgery and the ReStor lenses and loves them.  2 years later she sees fine both near and far with no glasses .

Unfortunately, she no longer shoots so I can't relay any experience with sight picture.

Good luck with the procedure and we'll keep you in our prayers.
Tony (HPT)

[desertrat144]

My wife is post op for cataract surgery.  She had a different lens put in, but when checking with the health insurance plan, Restor lens were beyond what the Book Keepers felt were Medical Necessity.  Check your plan to make sure they're covered.

The surgery is quick, and painless.  Those stylish ol' farts sunglasses are a hoot too! 

I wish you the best during surgery and recovery.

Tom

[Francis Marion]

I am also interested in identifying which artificial lenses are good for shooting, and offer a few thoughts on selection and what is the job of the artificial lens.  There are many lens choices.  Consider an accomodating lens.  Accommodation refers to the ability of the eye to naturally focus on an object at some given distance.  (HB, you probably have had to learn about this, but other folks might not know.)

The eye's natural crystalline lens loses its ability to change its shape- and therefore to accommodate- because it becomes less pliable with age.  (that condition is called presbyopia.)  Ciliary muscles around the crystalline lens are the body's means to change the shape of that lens.  And yet, the ciliary muscles of the eye still 'work' long after the natural lens ceases to be pliable.  

Patients who have the crystalline lense removed as part of a medical treatment may receive an artificial lens, known as an IOL, or intraocular lens.  The oldest IOL technologies don't accommodate, so you should discuss the accommodation capability of any IOL candidate with your doctor.  Accommodating lenses are designed to be flexed and manipulated by the natural mechanism of the eye- the ciliary muscles.  The ideal result is a more natural ability to focus on objects than a patient who has a fixed focus IOL, which is 'stuck' at one particular distance.

I would think that a shooter would want an accommodating IOL; don't know anything about the model you mention, though.  I'd also like to hear from shooters who have had IOLs implanted and how well they work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyopia
"Presbyopia is a health condition where the eye exhibits a progressively diminished ability to focus on near objects with age."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_lens
"One of the major disadvantages of conventional IOLs is that they are primarily focused for distance vision. Though patients who undergo a standard IOL implantation no longer experience clouding from cataracts, they are unable to accommodate, or change focus from near to far, far to near, and to distances in between. Accommodating IOLs interact with ciliary muscles and zonules, using hinges at both ends to "latch on" and move forward and backward inside the eye using the same mechanism as normal accommodation."