What is a Multifocal Lens?

In a healthy eye, the lens will change shape in order to focus on different things at different distances away from the eye. As we age, our lenses become more rigid and lose the ability to quickly change shape and adjust focus. While a lens implant cannot function exactly like the natural eye, with the ability to change shape, a multifocal intraocular lens implant (IOL) does give you the ability to focus on different things at multiple distances using the same lens.

How Do I Know If I’m a Good Candidate?

Many patients could benefit from multifocal lens implants, but not all patients will be good candidates for the procedure. Some of the most common reasons you may be eliminated as a candidate for this procedure include a high level of astigmatism that cannot be easily corrected with refractive eye surgery, retinal diseases or other eye problems that impact vision quality, and low to moderate degrees of presbyopia or myopia. Individuals who have relatively good vision (moderate nearsightedness or farsightedness) are often excluded because they will be unhappy with some of the visual distortions they experience related to multifocal lenses—in other words, the improvements in vision will not outweigh some of the side effects.

Individuals who are best suited for this type of procedure include young cataract patients with active lifestyles who are interested in reducing the need for corrective lenses, those with severe presbyopia caused by hyperopia (these patients tend to be better capable of focusing using multifocal IOLs), or patients with severe myopia. Because multifocal lenses can come with some visual distortions, they are best reserved for someone whose vision can be dramatically improved by the implant than someone whose vision only requires minor adjustments.

What We Offer

At Vision Quest, we offer both ReSTOR® lens by Alcon Laboratories and TECNIS® Multifocal Implantable Lens. Both give you the ability to focus at near, intermediate, and far distances using zones that direct light to different areas of your retina.

If you’re a candidate for cataract surgery, talk to your surgeon about whether you could be a good candidate for multifocal intraocular lens implants.