You mean I won’t have to wear glassew ANYMORE?

Words by STEVE BAGAN, MD

Eye surgery just got even better. Dr. Tom Strinden and Dr. Steve Bagan of Bagan Strinden Vision have lots of exciting new ways of correcting your vision, and told us about some of them; laser-assisted cataract surgery, premium lens implants, and iDesign Lasik—a big upgrade in Lasik surgery.

To understand these opportunities, you need to know a little bit about how the eye works. The lens of our eye lies right behind the pupil, and helps the eye to focus. A cataract is a common condition in which the natural lens of the eye gradually clouds over, resulting in fuzzy vision affecting reading, driving—especially after dark—causing haloes around lights, and generally making all daily activities blurry.

During cataract surgery, the natural lens of the eye is removed during the surgery and replaced with a permanent artificial lens called a lens implant. In the traditional, non-laser approach, the surgeon must do several parts of the operation using hand-held instruments. After taking a custom 3D image of the eye, the laser places treatments for astigmatism and cataracts more precisely than can be done by hand, making the rest of the surgery easier for the surgeon. This can improve outcomes, especially for those patients desiring better vision without glasses after surgery.

Until recently, the goal of cataract surgery was to safely restore vision, with the expectation that the patient would still be wearing glasses after the surgery. But with our advanced surgery technique, an additional benefit is that the patient’s prior focusing error can be corrected. So a patient who had strong eyeglasses all their life can now have much less dependence on glasses, as an implant to correct that focusing error will be used. There are special lens implants to correct astigmatism, and even one called a multifocal that has reading magnification built into it, so the patient will have less need for reading glasses or bifocals after the surgery. The laser provides extra precision for these types of cataract cases. The laser portion of the surgery only takes about three minutes, and is painless—done without the need for sedation or any needles or shots.

In some cases, the lens of the eye can be surgically replaced even if it has not yet clouded into a cataract. This is an option for those unfortunate few whose prescription is so strong that they are not candidates for Lasik. Dr. Bagan and Dr. Strinden often see patients who were turned away by other laser centers, and can offer a variety of options for these tougher cases.

Speaking of Lasik, there has just been a significant upgrade, and Bagan Strinden Vision is the only Lasik center in the state to have it. It is called iDesign. This advanced technology can measure optical aberrations that are unique to each individual eye. Just as your fingerprint is unique to you, there are subtle variations in the curvature of each eye that can’t be accounted for by the correction in your glasses or contact lenses. The iDesign can measure aberrations in problem eyes— those that have had prior corneal surgery, injury or various cornea diseases. The measurement taken can be programmed into the Lasik laser, to make a truly customized treatment for each eye.

Together, Drs. Strinden and Bagan have over 50 years of experience in treating all kinds of complex eye disease with lasers and surgery, but the new advances within the past year have made it possible to treat problems that just couldn’t be corrected before. Stay tuned for more advances—there is a device coming out that can be implanted in the cornea to restore reading vision for those over the age of 40 who need those annoying reading glasses. APPOINTMENTS

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