What is cataract surgery in Singapore and is it painful

Do you experience problems seeing due to cloudy vision that even spectacles can not help? In this case, you could have a cataract, a condition in which the clear lens of the eye becomes cloudy, preventing sufficient light rays from entering the eye and impairing vision. You need a cataract surgery. 

In cataract surgery, the lens inside your eye that has become cloudy is removed and replaced with an artificial lens (called an intraocular lens, or IOL) to restore clear vision. The procedure is performed on an outpatient basis and does not require other care facility. 

Cataract is common in the elderly due to ageing. Prolonged ultra-violet light exposure, long term use of medications such as steroids and certain illnesses like diabetes are also risk factors for the development of cataracts. Cataract can be present at birth or develop as a result of injury. 

The first sign of cataract is usually blurring of vision. Other complaints may include frequent change of glasses due to increasing short-sightedness in the adults, colours appearing dull, poor vision in bright light, glare, haloes around lights, difficulty reading or watching television or driving at night. 

Singapore cataract surgery will usually be advised by your surgeon when your poor vision caused by cataract can not be corrected with glasses and interferes with your daily activities. 

When going through cataract surgery Singapore, you are sedated. This is not a general anaesthetic, and you do remain awake during the cataract surgery. There is no discomfort associated with sedation, which puts you into a 'twilight' state. While you can still respond to basic instructions from the surgeon, such as 'look at the light,' you will often have little memory of the Singapore cataract surgery afterwards. One minute you're talking to the anaesthetist, the next you are being offered tea and refreshments after your procedure is complete. It is not a painful cataract surgery. 

After your cataract surgery, you will need to administer eye-drops into the operated eye at regular intervals for up to 4 weeks. Light activities and good hygiene are advised. Potential contaminants to the healing wound such as from swimming and hair-washing should be avoided. 

You should return for check-ups at one day, within one week and at about a month from your Singapore cataract surgery. click more laser cataract surgery

Is presbyopia correction a risky operation?

Presbyopia is an age-related condition of the eye in which the eye slowly loses the ability to focus quickly on objects that are close. It is a natural disorder that affects everyone, even those who have had no prior problems, typically occurring around the age of 40. Eye specialist believes that presbyopia is caused by changes to the lens inside the eyes. 

condition-of-presbyopia 

When young, the lens of the eyes is usually flexible, relatively elastic and the muscles surrounding it would easily reshape and adjust to accommodate both close and distant images. However, with age the lens and the muscles lose its flexibility and elasticity, becoming more stiff and rigid. Eye doctor believes that this would prevent the lens from changing its shape as quickly as it could, constricting the eye's ability to focus light directly onto your retina. 

presbyopia correction Singapore

The first few signs of presbyopia are the gradual deterioration in the ability to read, having difficulty in reading small print or having eyestrain as well as headaches after reading or doing work up close. Patients would usually need to squint or adjust their reading materials to the 'appropriate' distance as well as require a brighter light to read or do work up close. Patients with presbyopia would also easily feel fatigue from doing all the tasks mentioned above and would have a problem seeing or focusing on objects that are up close. Today, there are many simple yet highly successful ways to correct refractive errors and conditions with little to no risk involved at all. 

presbyopia-correction-implanting-a-multi-focal-lens 

Before any presbyopia correction can be done, eye specialist would first assess patients to determine if they are suffering from cataracts. If they do, patients are presented with a choice between multi-focal lens technology or mono-focal lens technology for the lens implant surgery. These implants would be implanted during cataract surgery, removing all refractive errors including the likes of myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia to achieve spectacle-free vision. While it is implanted in the eye, multi-focal lens implants work similar to wearing 'progressive' spectacles which allow distance, intermediate and near focus. The brain will neuro-adapt to the multi-focal visual system postoperatively and will automatically select the eye to focus at whatever is the required distance. 

On the other hand, mono-focal lens implant sets one eye for near vision, while the other mono focal lens implant sets the other eye to see the distance. The process of neuro-adaptation for mono-vision usually takes slightly longer, a week or two for the brain to adjust and begin to use the eyes naturally in a mono-vision manner. According to eye doctor, patients will never have to worry about spectacles and cataracts ever again as the power carried in the implanted lens are stable for the rest of the patient's life and cataracts can never return after it is removed. Both procedures take 15 minutes and is performed under local anaesthesia. 

Younger patients with presbyopia but no cataract should be able to opt for LASIK as a presbyopia correction procedure. LASIK uses a laser to correct the shape of the lens, treating any refractive errors and restoring perfect vision. It corrects one eye's focus for far vision and correct the other eye's focus for near vision. The brain would merge these two images, enabling the patient to see relatively well at all distances. While it is a simple 10-minute pain-free procedure, LASIK mono-vision does not prevent cataract  formation. 

What is Presbyopia and what should I do?

Presbyopia is long-sightedness which is caused by the loss of elasticity of our eye lens and mostly occurs in the middle and older age. The eye condition which occurs due to both myopia and hypermetropia is called Presbyopia. 

Myopia is also commonly known as nearsightedness and hypermetropia is known as long-sightedness. Due to Presbyopia, we are unable to see the objects placed near our eyes especially reading material. Presbyopia is a common eye condition around the world including Singapore and happens mostly around the age of 40. Previously, Presbyopia used to be treated by bifocal spectacles, but now there are many treatments for presbyopia correction in Singapore.

In Presbyopia, the lens of our eye becomes harder and less elastic, making it harder for the eye to focus on the nearby objects and as a result, a person will hold the reading material slightly further than the normal distance from the eye, causing eye strain, headache and fatigue. According to a study by science direct in 2015, for the age of 0-90 years,1.8 billion people were affected by Presbyopia. As presbyopia happens to every other person, therefore, it is important to treat it soon in order to avoid deteriorating it further. There are mainly 3 ways to treat for presbyopia correction:

1. Contact lens

2. Spectacles.

3. Surgery.

Contact lens: At an early stage of presbyopia, patients often have an unpleasant experience especially for those who have not ever used glasses and suddenly unable to see the closer objects. Using bifocal glasses is not welcomed by many and hence comes the alternate option for bifocal contact lenses which will be prescribed by your eye specialist to help with presbyopia correction.

Spectacles: Those who prefer glasses have the option of Bifocal spectacles prescribed by their eye doctor, where top of the spectacles lens has a prescription of distance vision and bottom has the near vision. Spectacles with progressive lens and reading glasses is another alternative option prescribed by your eye specialist to help with presbyopia correction.

Surgery: Another method is presbyopia surgery for presbyopia correction, which is a painless Lasik surgery treatment which is a common option as most individuals would like not to go through the hassle of wearing glasses or lens.

Patients suffering from Presbyopia, are first assessed by the eye specialist and check for the eye conditions, whether if the eye is having any cataract, then they are given the choice of multi-focal or mono-focal implants, done within 15 minutes time under local anesthetic, which will then help to cure the eye conditions such as myopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. There are a number of specialist in Singapore to treat presbyopia and you are able to choose the Singapore presbyopia clinic which best suits your needs. If you are comfortable with multi-focal and mono-focal lens implants, then you could contact Dr Natasha Lim, a well known experienced eye specialist in Singapore.

Sometimes, Presbyopia might happen at a younger age just before middle age without the presence of Singapore cataract . Then mostly the eye specialist would advise to go for the Lasik surgery whereby the shape of the cornea is changed using a laser. A latest FDA-approved procedure to cure presbyopia is known as mono-LASIK, where one eye is treated for near and the other for distance, in a simple pain-free 10-minute procedure, under local anesthesia.

Most of the common eye conditions such as short-sightedness, astigmatism and presbyopia are able to be cured by LASIK treatment. There is another option for patients above 45 years old, called implantable contact lens but it is not FDA-approved yet. There are a number of methods to treat presbyopia correction in Singapore, whether its multi-lens implant to treat presbyopia during cataract surgery, or mono-vision LASIK surgery to treat presbyopia correction, we need to make sure that we research thoroughly for the selected eye specialist, for their qualification, their clients testimonials and read the online reviews as well as word of mouth, to ensure that we choose the legitimate eye specialist who has sufficient experience, FDA certified and possess latest technology and equipment to perform the presbyopic correction treatment.