You may have heard of bifocal lenses. These are lenses for glasses or contacts that are divided into two sections.
For reading or looking at things up close, you look through the bottom half, and for everything else, you look through the top half. This isn’t anything new since Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals over 200 years ago.
But now, there are all kinds of lenses for not only glasses and contacts, but also intraocular lenses. Intraocular lenses or IOLs are an essential part of having cataract surgery.
They replace the natural lens that becomes cloudy when you have cataracts. This natural lens is then removed during the procedure.
One IOL that patients could choose is the trifocal lens. Keep reading to learn if the trifocal lens could be right for you!
How a Trifocal Lens Works
Where a bifocal lens has two sections of the lens to look through, the trifocal has three. One is set for close-up focus, one is for distance, and one is for middle distance.
This makes trifocals more versatile than bifocal and multifocal lenses. Bifocal and multifocal lenses only have sections of the lens set to two different refractive powers.
The result is clearer vision at all distances, not just when looking at objects up close or far away.
Trifocal IOLs
There are a variety of IOLs available to cataract surgery patients, as well as refractive lens exchange patients. The two procedures are almost identical.
The difference is that during cataract surgery you’ll have cataracts removed. Refractive lens exchange is essentially cataract surgery but the patient doesn’t have cataracts. Instead, with RLE, they’ll have the natural lens removed and replaced with an IOL. 3– they simply want to see better by getting an IOL.
IOLs come in standard and premium varieties. The standard IOL is just a monofocal, lens, which is a uniform lens set to focus on one distance.
Doctors usually recommend one monofocal lens in each eye, with one set to see up close and the other far away. The result is something called monovision.
This allows you to see decently at all distances, but patients often need reading glasses still to see up close. Premium IOLs tend to allow sharper up-close vision, like bifocal and multifocal IOLs.
Toric IOLs are also premium lenses and are designed to correct astigmatism. Trifocal IOLs are premium IOLs as well, but they have several advantages over other premium lenses.
Advantages of the Trifocal IOL
The main advantages of the trifocal lens are that they allow you to see not only up close and far away, but also at a middle distance. This makes them ideal for people who spend a lot of time on the computer.
Before, the best option for patients that spent a lot of time in front of computers was monovision. It’s safest to view screens at a middle distance and other premium IOLs have sharper up-close vision.
This can make it tempting to get too close to the screen. But since the trifocal lens will accommodate middle distance vision, you can view screens at a safe distance and still see clearly.
Another advantage to trifocals is they can also be toric lenses. This allows them to correct slight astigmatism while providing you with good vision at all ranges.
If you want to know if the trifocal lens is for you, consider these benefits. Do you frequently use electronic screens and want clear vision at all distances?
Do you want to correct your astigmatism at the same time and reduce your need for glasses after cataract surgery? If you answered yes to any of these questions, a trifocal lens might be for you.
Ready to learn more about trifocal lenses? Schedule an appointment at New England Eye Center in Boston, MA now! Isn’t it time to make seeing clearly a priority?
