Tecnis Aspheric IOL

Toric lens implants are an exciting technology for patients with moderate amounts of astigmatism. Reducing your astigmatism will reduce your dependence upon glasses as compared to if you had a standard lens implant. A standard lens implant can be set to make you either far sighted or near sighted but if you have astigmatism, basically you will be able to see either far away or up close, but not both. Your focus without glasses will still be blurred to some degree because of the residual astigmatism that is not corrected by the standard lens implant.

What is astigmatism? Astigmatism is a common condition that can make your vision distorted or blurred. The distortion is usually because the eye’s cornea or lens has an oval shape instead of the preferred round shape. Astigmatism is a very common eye condition and does not always require corrective lenses. Many people have some degree of astigmatism.

Happily, a minor level of astigmatism is considered normal and requires no correction. If a person with a minor level of astigmatism needed cataract surgery a toric lens implant would not be necessary. Patients with moderate or high degrees of astigmatism almost always experience blurred or distorted vision unless the astigmatism is corrected. This is accomplished with corrective lenses (glasses or contact lenses) prior to cataract surgery. In some cases, patients do not realize they have astigmatism prior to cataract surgery because the cataract masks the astigmatism; but in this case, when the cataract is removed, it will become evident.

You could wear glasses in order to correct the astigmatism, however if it is desirable to you to have better vision when you are not wearing your glasses, you may want to consider the Toric lens implant.