Crystalens™ Intraocular Lens (IOL)
Panama City, Florida
The Crystalens™ IOL is an excellent way to treat cataracts. Unlike the ReSTOR® and ReZoom™ IOLs, it is not multifocal, but accommodating. A multifocal lens is structured with concentric zones or steps, each of which gives clear vision within a certain distance range. Between them, they give clear vision at all distances. The Crystalens™ has one focus only, but it helps to replace the eye’s lost ability to accommodate.
The Eye’s Accommodative Ability
When light enters the eye, it is bent (refracted) to focus on the retina (the “camera film” at the back of the eye. First the cornea refracts it (that clear front part of the eye). Then the lens refracts it more. While the cornea has a fixed curvature, the natural lens can change its curvature, depending on how much the incoming light needs to be refracted.
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Tiny muscles at each side of the lens control its shape, relaxing to make it more steeply curved, and contracting to flatten it. This is known as accommodation. When you look from these words to your hands, to a tree outside the window, and back to these words, you are using this accommodative ability. The eye is accommodating to the light entering it, bending at appropriate angles to give clear vision at all distances.
When the natural lens is removed and replaced with an artificial lens, the accommodative ability is lost. That is why IOLs have been developed to restore to some extent. Multifocal IOLs restore its benefits with their concentric zones, each treating light differently. Crystalens™ mimics accommodation.
How Does Crystalens™ Work?
Each Crystalens™ has a hinge on each side, connected to the same muscles which previously controlled the natural lens. So when you focus on something close by, those muscles relax, as they did when you had your natural lens. But now this relaxation causes the Crystalens™ to move forward slightly. This has an effect on incoming light similar to what the natural lens had when it steepened. The light is bent at sharper angles.
When you focus on something distant, the muscles contract, causing the Crystalens™ to move back slightly, and this bends incoming light at flatter angles. The Crystalens™ is principally designed to improve vision at near and intermediate distances.
If you have a Crystalens™ in place, you will not feel it moving. Your vision will focus near and far just as it previously did, but now it’s the Crystalens™ “accommodating” instead of the natural lens.
If you or a loved one is considering advanced lens implants, please contact the Eye Center of North Florida today. The Eye Center of North Florida offers a thorough screening and a friendly, professional atmosphere. Call our office today and be on your way to seeing the world clearly. Nine doctors. One vision—Yours.
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