San Jose Eye Institute

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What is the Tecnis Symfony Toric Lens?

Symfony Toric Lens

The Tecnis Symfony Toric lens is an intraocular lens that is implanted during cataract surgery after the cataract has been removed. Briefly, the Symfony lens allows patients to see a continuous range of clear vision, usually from far away distances to intermediate range distances (such as computer screens), without the need for bifocals or progressive glasses. Read more details about the Symfony lens here.

However, to achieve this range of clear vision, the patient cannot have significant astigmatism, or warping on the surface of the eye. For those patients who do have astigmatism, the Symfony Toric lens can be used to address this problem.

Astigmatism can be thought of as an asymmetric warping on the surface of the eye, like a football instead of a basketball. This “football” has a certain orientation, or axis, on the eye. The toric component of the Symfony Toric lens also has a “football” shape, which is marked by two sets of linear dots on the lens surface. If the two “footballs” are placed opposite of each other (90 degrees apart), they can cancel each other out and lead to an overall “basketball” appearance, essentially reducing the astigmatism of the eye.

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What is the Crystalens?

Crystalens

The Crystalens is an intraocular lens that is implanted during cataract surgery after the cataract has been removed. In contrast to a standard monofocal lens, the Crystalens allows patients to see both far and near in focus.

Unique to this lens is that it is essentially a monofocal lens that dynamically flexes inside the eye. The Crystalens utilizes the natural muscles within the eye to adjust its shape, and thereby, its effective power within the eye. As a result, there is range of vision that is in focus, not just two separate far and near distances.

Because the Crystalens depends on the muscles of the eye to focus between far and near, its effect can be variable, depending on the strength of the eye muscles. Although some patients can see a large range of distances in focus, the majority are only able to see two of the key distances in focus, usually from far (TV, driving) to intermediate (computers, reading newspaper). Rarely, the range is less, with the Crystalens appearing to move only minimally. The effective range is not age-dependent, and cannot be predicted before surgery.

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Narrow Angle Glaucoma

Narrow angle glaucoma (or angle closure glaucoma) is a special type of glaucoma, commonly seen in patients who are far-sighted.  Patients with far-sighted eyes tend to have shorter eyes (front-to-back), and so the space inside the eye is physically smaller. As the natural lens inside the eye grows in size, it begins to crowd out the other structures within this smaller eye. One of these structures is the anterior chamber angle.

This anterior chamber angle of the eye is equivalent to the drain of a sink. When this structure is crowded, the liquid nutrients within the eye cannot drain away as easily, leading to a potential build-up of eye pressure. When the pressure is high enough to cause optic nerve damage (the optic nerve connects the eye to the brain), it is called narrow angle glaucoma or angle closure glaucoma.

More commonly, patients have angles which are at high risk for angle closure, but the optic nerve has not yet been damaged. This condition is referred to as anatomically narrow angles.

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What causes dry eyes in the mornings?

A sensation of dry and irritated eyes in the mornings does not necessarily mean that one has dry eyes from lack of tear production. Many times, it suggests that there may be a problem with the meibomian glands along the eyelid margins.

The meibomian glands secrete oils which help to keep the tear film stable on the surface of the eye.  In meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), the secretion of the meibomian glands are thickened and inflamed. The secretions seep onto the eye surface when you sleep, causing redness, irritation and discharge. After waking, the blinking of the eyelids slowly washes the secretions away, and the eyes begin to feel better. This condition is also known as meibomitis or posterior blepharitis.

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What is a Tecnis Symfony lens?

Tecnis Symfony Lens

The Tecnis Symfony lens is an intraocular lens that is implanted during cataract surgery after the cataract has been removed. In contrast to a standard monofocal lens, the Tecnis Symfony lens has the ability to treat presbyopia, a condition that prevents patients from seeing both far and near in focus at the same time.

This lens was FDA approved in 2016 and is unique in that it is not considered a multifocal lens, such as the ReSTOR multifocal or the Tecnis multifocal. A multifocal lens gives patients two distinct distances where images are in focus, such as far and near. In between the far and near focal points, the images are not as clear. With the Tecnis Symfony lens, the images are in focus at far and near, but also everywhere in between. It provides a range of distances within which everything is in focus.

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