ReSTOR is an intraocular lens (IOL) that can be used to replace your natural lens during cataract surgery. Cataracts cloud the eye’s natural lens, and the only solution is to remove it and replace it with an artificial lens. The first lenses were monofocal lenses, which allowed for limited vision after cataract surgery, so people generally wore glasses or bifocals after surgery.
However, there are many advanced technology IOLs available for use after cataract surgery, including ReSTOR, that may allow you to be free of glasses or contacts after cataract surgery. ReSTOR is what is called a multifocal lens, that, is, a lens that allows you to focus on objects at different distances, maybe even so well that you will not need glasses or contacts.
How ReSTOR Works
To see objects clearly at different distances depends on the ability to focus light from those objects on the back of the eye, the retina. (See How the Eye Works.) Your natural lens changes shape to change the focus of your eye, but most artificial lenses are rigid and can’t change shape. Multifocal lenses like ReSTOR get around this by having multiple focus zones that simultaneously focus light from different distances onto the retina, some of which will have near objects in focus, some far. Your brain selects the clearest image of the object you want to look at.
What Makes ReSTOR Different
The ReSTOR IOL is a unique combination of two different solutions types of multifocal lenses: It has a central zone made up of numerous tiny focal zone designed to give, in the words of the manufacturer, the “full range of quality vision,” and an outer zone dedicated to supporting distance vision in low-light conditions, such as night driving. In other words, the center of ReSTOR is like the Tecnis multifocal lens, but the outside is based on the same philosophy as the ReZoom lens.
To learn more about advanced technology IOL options after cataract surgery and which one might be right for you, please schedule a consultation with an ophthalmologist in your area today.