The light adjustable lens is an advanced type of IOL that can be used to replace your natural lens during cataract surgery. The cataract surgeons at Clemson Eye are excited to offer the only intraocular lens that can be adjusted after cataract surgery allowing you to fully customize your visual results.
The light adjustable lens is a type of intraocular lens (IOL), an artificial implant that replaces a clouded natural lens, also known as a cataract. Like other IOLs, light adjustable lenses are made primarily of a clear, synthetic material.
However, light adjustable lenses also contain a photo-sensitive material that changes shape when exposed to ultraviolet light. By directing UV light onto this material with the light delivery device, your eye doctor can adjust the power of the lens after you’ve healed from cataract surgery.
This gives you the opportunity to fully test-drive and customize your vision.
After you’ve healed from cataract surgery, you will return for one to three painless light treatments to fine-tune your new lenses. These sessions are spaced out over several days, with each session lasting about a minute and a half.
During each treatment, you will sit in front of the light delivery device operated by your eye doctor. The light delivery device emits a controlled amount of ultraviolet light onto the lens’s light-sensitive material.
This in turn changes the power of the lens. These light treatments continue until you achieve your desired vision clarity, which usually takes three to four sessions. During the final treatment, your eye doctor will “lock in” the lenses so they are no longer sensitive to ultraviolet light.
The Light Adjustable Lens can be an excellent option for many patients, but it’s not suitable for everyone. You may be a good candidate for the Light Adjustable Lens if:
To determine if the Light Adjustable Lens is right for you, consult with an experienced eye care professional who can assess your individual situation and vision goals.
Light adjustable lenses offer a solution for patients with challenging eye conditions that might make traditional IOL outcomes less predictable.
These innovative lenses are designed to minimize common visual disturbances, potentially providing clearer and more comfortable vision compared to some other lens options.
Unlike traditional IOLs, the Light Adjustable Lens can be precisely adjusted after cataract surgery, allowing for optimal vision correction tailored to each patient’s needs.
Cataract surgery with the light adjustable lens is no different from cataract surgery with any other IOL. Both require removing the old lens, using either a laser or a microsurgical scalpel, and replacing it with an IOL.
The real difference occurs after you’ve healed from cataract surgery when you will return to your eye doctor’s office to undergo light treatment sessions to fine-tune the lens for customized vision. Until you complete those treatments, you may have to wear special glasses to block stray UV light that might interfere with the new lenses.
There were a lot of things that I was finding I couldn’t do any longer…My eyesight today has changed my life.
Becky Davies
Light Adjustable Lens Patient
