If your vision suffers from cataracts, you may wish to consider cataract surgery. In Tampa, Florida, Prado Vision is a leading provider of cataract surgery, a safe, effective procedure that allows people with cataracts to see clearly again.
A cataract is a progressive clouding of the eye’s natural lens, which causes a gradual dimming of vision. Cataracts usually develop in people over 60, but they can also occur in younger people. Cataracts can make reading difficult and decrease distance vision. They may also cause debilitating glare or haloes around lights, decreased night vision, hazy vision, distorted color perception, and even double vision. There is no treatment to reverse or slow down the development of a cataract. The only treatment is to remove the cataract, through cataract surgery, when it impairs the vision significantly. You will discuss the proper time to remove your cataracts with our skilled eye specialists.
Cataract Surgery Procedure
Cataract surgery is performed at Outpatient surgical facilities in both Tampa and Brandon with the use of a local anesthetic. The procedure usually takes only a few minutes, and patients leave the surgery center a short time after the cataract surgery is finished. In almost all cases, a technique called phacoemulsification is used to remove the cataracts. This state-of-the-art technique breaks the cataract into microscopic particles and then removes them from within the eye. This type of cataract surgery is performed through a very small incision. In most cases, the incision is self-sealing and requires no stitches. An artificial intraocular lens (IOL) is inserted to replace the eye’s natural lens. The IOL implant will remain in your eye permanently.
Because of improvements in the safety of cataract surgery, most patients will not need to wear an eye patch after surgery. Everyone heals somewhat differently, but many cataract surgery patients report improvement in their vision almost immediately. Most patients can resume their normal activities, including work, within a few days.
With advances in technology and surgical techniques, cataract surgery is no longer the complicated, lengthy process it was in the past. Cataracts can now be removed with this safe, effective procedure, and patients can return to their normal lives relatively quickly.
Nobody should be forced to live with cataracts. To discuss cataract surgery in Tampa, Florida, contact Prado Vision at (813) 931-0500 or request an appointment today.
AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL
The appropriately named ReSTOR® lens provides our Tampa-area patients maximum independence from reading glasses and bifocals by restoring the ability to focus on objects across the whole range of vision without glasses.
A healthy natural lens is contracted and thickened by surrounding muscles to focus on near objects. These muscles cannot be attached to an artificial replacement lens, so the standard IOL, which has a flat, smooth surface, is designed to provide good distance vision. Glasses, usually bifocals, are used to provide clear middle and near vision.
The AcrySof® ReSTOR® IOL offers our Tampa-area patients the advantage of a special design that includes a graduated surface of different thicknesses, from thick in the center to thin on the edges. It’s similar in concept to stacking a series of increasingly smaller lenses on top of one another. The thick central portion provides the closest focus, like a natural lens that’s been fully contracted; the layers graduating out from the center provide focus at increasingly distant ranges, like a natural lens when the muscle relaxes and lets it expand and thin.
In a clinical study comparing IOLs, more than 80 percent of participants with the ReSTOR® IOL implanted chose not to wear glasses, compared to a mere eight percent of participants with standard IOLs. Most ReSTOR® patients are able to read magazines, newspapers, and even prescription bottles without glasses.
In addition to providing our Tampa-area patients good vision without glasses, the ReSTOR® lens provides protection against ultra-violet and blue light damage. The potential for damage from ultra-violet light is well known. More recently, evidence has shown that blue light may be a factor in retinal damage and age-related macular degeneration. This protection is afforded without any change to normal color perception.
To learn more about the ReSTOR® advantage, contact our Tampa-area practice today.
