Your Ultimate Guide On Private Refractive Lens Surgery That Will Help Put You At Ease

By Author: Sharmina Khan Eye Clinic
Total Articles: 13
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For many people in need of effective vision correction, refractive lens exchange is often the best course of action. One of the reasons private refractive lens surgery has become so popular is the ability to tailor each procedure to the patient's specific needs, while also ensuring the most precise correction and the lowest possible risk.

Because of the concerns people usually have before undergoing private refractive lens surgery, it is important to know everything about the procedure, and that is the purpose of this article.

What Happens During Private Refractive Lens Surgery?

First, you need to know that having surgery to replace the lens in your eye to correct your vision, is considered permanent. Surgery is preceded by a proper eye examination and possible further testing. Only when necessary, an eye surgeon or consultant ophthalmic surgeon at an eye hospital, such as London's Moorfields Private Eye Hospital, will typically perform a private refractive lens exchange, which is a surgical procedure to replace the natural lens. The surgeon will then proceed to replace the natural lens with an artificial ...
... correction lens or intraocular lens that is specifically designed to meet each patient's condition and needs.

The eye doctor will do a complete eye examination before the surgery and give you or your doctor critical information regarding your treatment. During the consultation, the eye doctor will provide you with details regarding the procedure, the types of corrective lenses that are available for you, and aftercare advice.

Contrary to popular belief, private refractive lens surgery is not painful, but the surgeon employs the use of anesthesia to the eye, to dull the nerves so that you won't feel anything. The surgeon will then create a small incision on the corneal side to reach the natural lens of the eye. The native lens will then be removed by the eye surgeon and replaced with an artificial lens implant by microinjection.

Private refractive lens surgery will not take longer than 20-30 minutes, depending on whether there are any complications or not, and requires no overnight stay in the hospital, which means that as soon as the procedure is complete and the surgeon is satisfied that all went well, you can go home, but you should rather not drive yourself home.

Different Types Of Refractive Lens Surgeries

The main goal of private refractive lens surgery is to improve your vision, and since everyone's vision is unique, there are several types of refractive lens surgeries available to meet the demands of different people.

Manufacturers recently designed new lens implants that can effectively address both far and near vision. They are known as multifocal lenses, and they offer patients a better chance of successfully correcting their vision problems. For example, with multifocal lenses, you will be able to see far away and read a book, without the need for prescription glasses.

Different multifocal lens designs are also available, and they are all made to correct your vision while minimising the need for reading glasses. The most popular type of lens is a trifocal one, which gives you the ability to see things up close as well as far away and has intermediate vision focus.

Monofocal lenses are another type of lens that is used during private refractive lens surgery. They offer clear distance vision, but the downside of mono-focal lenses is that they can only repair one of two vision problems, namely farsightedness or nearsightedness, and as a result, you might still need to wear glasses after surgery.

You will need to rest your eyes after having refractive lens surgery so that they can heal. After about a week or at least four days, you can return to the office. Your vision will become much sharper during the first week of recovery, but note that full recovery could take up to 30 days. While your vision may initially be a little fuzzy as your eyes acclimate to the new lens implant following surgery, you will soon enough see a huge improvement in your quality of life.

About Us

Sharmina Khan is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at London's world-famous Moorfields Private Eye Hospital. She joined the world-renowned Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2002 to specialise in Ophthalmology after graduating from University College London in 1998. She went on to finish advanced training in external eye disease, cataract surgery, and corneal surgery and has worked as a consultant in both the commercial and NHS sectors for nearly 10 years. Ms. Khan offers a wide range of eye procedures and treatments and has carried out over 5000 cataract/lens operations in the last five years. She runs her premium eye clinic at Moorfields Private Eye Hospital and 46 Wimpole Street, as well as leading clinical audits in cataract surgery results for the NHS. Her ultimate mission is to help improve her patient’s quality of life by providing them with a clear vision and sharpened focus. Visit her website at https://www.sharminakhan.co.uk/ for more information.