Refractive Cataract Surgery
What is Refractive Cataract Surgery?
At Michigan Vision, we pride ourselves on being the experts in advanced refractive cataract surgery in Flint, Fenton, and Grand Blanc.
Refractive cataract surgery is the practice of improving your vision during cataract surgery, and using the best and most advanced technology available to reduce or eliminate your need for glasses. We utilize more advanced preoperative diagnostic testing before your surgery, state of the art technology during the procedure, and the gentlest surgical techniques to achieve the safest and clearest glasses free vision possible for the rest of your life. These technologies are not covered by insurance plans, and for good candidates allow us to bring a new level of freedom and clarity to your vision.
Preoperative Diagnostic Imaging
- Laser optical biometry
- Modern validated intraocular lens calculation formulas
- Corneal topography and tomography
- Optical coherence tomography
Toric IOLs for Astigmatism Correction
Astigmatism refers to the natural shape of our eyes looking more like a football than a basketball, causing things to look blurry or distorted. Astigmatism needs to be corrected to see your best. Cataract surgery allows us an opportunity to fix the problem where it occurs – in the eye – providing you with exceptional distance clarity that could otherwise only be achieved depending on glasses or contact lenses.
Using our LenSx Femtosecond Laser and our advanced toric intraocular lenses (IOLs), we can eliminate your eye’s natural astigmatism, giving you better glasses free vision than you likely had prior to even developing cataracts. This allows you to drive comfortably and see the golf ball without depending on glasses!
Multifocal IOLs for Presbyopia Correction
Presbyopia is an eye problem which makes it possible to see objects well far away, but need readers or bifocals to see well up close. Presbyopia is actually the first sign of cataract development in most people, however standard cataract surgery with a basic IOL will not bring back your eye’s ability to see up close glasses free.
Fortunately, over the past decade IOL technology has had enormous advancements which now allow us to correct presbyopia at the time of cataract surgery. Using multifocal IOLs custom matched for your personal needs, our surgeons are able to reduce or eliminate the need for glasses in the majority of your life! This may allow you to see not only well at far away, but even intermediate distances like your computer and car dashboard, as well as near like reading books or your phone.
As incredible as these new technologies are, no lens can ever be perfect, and it is likely you will always find some tasks where you may want a pair of low-powered reading glasses for particularly fine and difficult print.
LenSx Femtosecond Laser
Our surgery center houses a modern femtosecond laser allowing us to fine-tune astigmatism correction, while utilizing literal laser precision to complete the most delicate portions of cataract surgery.
Pinhole IOLs for Corneal Irregularity
Many people have corneal irregularity from previous surgery such as Radial Keratotomy (RK) or corneal transplants (PKP), or medical conditions such as keratoconus (KCN) and pellucid marginal degeneration (PMD). This may lead to blurred vision, glare, ghosting, and image duplication.
We now have an excellent option to decrease the light scatter caused by these irregularities to help the eye better filter light and improve your vision. Using new pinhole optic IOLs, we can block the majority of the randomly scattered light to improve the functional vision of the eye.
Pinhole optic IOLs may lead to a subjective dimming of vision in the eye, and after evaluation our surgeons will have you use a prescription eyedrop to emulate the sensation for 1-2 weeks to ensure your eye is improved prior to scheduling surgery.