Am I too old for laser eye surgery?

There is no upper age limit on laser eye surgery but....

As we age, our eyes get older too. We have two focusing lenses in our eyes much like a camera and eventually the internal lens becomes more opaque. This is called a cataract.

Laser eye surgery such as LASIK and SMILE works by reshaping the external lens of the eye (the cornea). So if the internal lens is going opaque... this won't really work to fix your vision.

So instead people can choose to have cataract surgery and this involves replacing the internal lens with a new artificial lens.Then comes the big decision..... Do you want great distance vision but have to put on readers for everything up close? Or do you want to have reading vision and wear glasses for distance? Yes but hang on you say, why can't I have both distance and near vision without glasses? Well you can but there's a catch.

You see, an artificial lens which mimics a young person's lens which can flex and focus in and out hasn't been invented yet. That's the sort of lens which would give you distance and near vision without compromise. So every solution we have at the moment has some compromise.

The two main ways to achieve distance and near vision after cataract surgery is to have one eye focused for distance and one for near (remember this was the concept of monovision I talked about in my previous blogs) or some version of multifocal lenses. Both these ways involve some compromise and won't achieve perfect distance vision or near vision. But it can help get you away from carrying glasses with you everywhere.... which might help you feel young again :)