Will I need glasses after my cataract surgery?
What will the surgery do to my eyeglass prescription?
What about my astigmatism?
When will I get my glasses after the surgery?

Will I need glasses after my cataract surgery?

In most cases yes. See the other eyeglass questions for more answers. Return to FAQ Page

What will the surgery do to my eyeglass prescription?

Because the surgery will replace the eye's natural lens with an artificial lens, it presents the opportunity to change the eye's eyeglass prescription. If you are farsighted or nearsighted the surgery can change that. If you have astigmatism the cataract surgery may or may not change this, please refer to the section on astigmatism. Before the surgery your eye will be measured to determine what the power of the artificial lens needs to be. The official name for this lens is Intraocular Lens, or IOL for short, also sometimes called an implant. Changing the power of the IOL will change where the eye is in focus without glasses. You and your doctor will need to consider a variety of options depending on your particular circumstances. These are some of the more common situations - the following assume there is not a lot of astigmatism:

- In most cases, while the vision may be quite good without glasses, bifocal or trifocal glasses are worn to give the best distant and near vision.

- Most commonly the eye is made to see best in the distance without glasses, therefore requiring glasses for reading.

- Occasionally someone who likes to do a lot of near activities, such as reading, knitting, etc, asks that the eye be made (or left) nearsighted. Then they can perform these near activities without glasses, and would need glasses for distant vision

- TV, driving, etc. - A good option for some is monovision. In this the dominant eye is set to see in the distance without glasses and the other eye is made nearsighted, so that it can see up close without glasses. Thus, without glasses it is possible to see both near and distance. Glasses can still be worn too, which would give better depth perception, as the eyes then focus together better.

- Multifocal lens: The ARRAY lens is an IOL that has more than one focus point. It allows clear vision without glasses at distance and near by using essentially two lenses in one. Distance vision should be as good as that achieved with a traditional IOL. Typical reading vision would be regular newspaper print; however, smaller print such as want ads may require reading glasses. Good as it sounds it is not for everyone. It works best when implanted in both eyes and there must not be much astigmatism (either there is naturally not much astigmatism or if there is any it must be corrected surgically for the lens to work). Since part of the light entering the eye is focused for one distance and part for the other, there is necessarily a loss of contrast. Typically this also results in small haloes around point sources of light at night. For those who are highly critical of their vision this lens is not for them. For those who want to be independent of glasses and are willing to accept some small compromises, they should consider it. Attached to this are some descriptions of what patients have experienced with this lens. The lens is not available in as large a range of powers as traditional lenses, so if you are now very near or farsighted it may not be available in the power you need. Attached is a description by an eye doctor who had this lens implanted in himself describing his experience with it.

- Patients who are very near or farsighted and have a cataract in only one eye are a special problem. The power of a lens is measured in diopters. If your eyeglass strength is greater than 2.5 diopters in the eye without the cataract this applies to you. Most people can only stand a difference of dioptric power in their glasses between the two eyes of 2.5 diopters, any greater difference causes symptoms of double vision and eye strain. This is because the size of the image in each eye will be different and they have trouble fusing this different size images into one. Thus, in order to wear glasses, when removing a cataract from one eye and not the other, we must plan on not leaving a difference between the two eyes of more than 2.5 diopters. This may require leaving the operated eye nearsighted or farsighted to match the unoperated eye. For instance- Joe is nearsighted and has a distant eyeglass prescription of -5.00 diopters in both eyes. This means without his glasses on he can see clearly at 20 centimeters (8 inches) and further away from that things get blurry without his glasses. In order to avoid problems with glasses after the surgery we will need to leave the operated eye still nearsighted at 2.50 diopters. This is less nearsighted than before, objects will appear clear at 40 centimeters (16 inches) and blurry beyond. Alternatives here include correcting the eye with the cataract to where it sees clearly in the distance without glasses (an eyeglass correction of zero, technically called plano) and either wearing a contact lens on the other eye or having refractive surgery such as LASIK on the other eye so that it matches the eye that had the cataract removed.

What about my astigmatism?

Astigmatism is a type of refractive error in which the horizontal light rays are focused in a different plane than the vertical light rays. This is usually caused by the cornea of the eye being football shaped instead of round. The reflections from the left eye in this picture is oblong, indicating astigmatism. The other eye has round reflections and no astigmatism. Cataract surgery doesn't usually significantly change this shape - so if you have astigmatism before the surgery, most of the time you will have it afterwards. Your doctor can determine if you will have astigmatism from the measurements that are taken of the eye before surgery. If you have astigmatism left over after the cataract surgery, then you will need glasses to give you the best vision - without them your vision will be blurry because of the astigmatism.

When will I get my glasses after the surgery?

After your eye is healed and the eyeglass prescription is stable. Some doctors prescribe glasses after two or three weeks, others wait six weeks.