Surgery for age related long sightedness! OMG! No more reading glasses!

[dogsaremybusiness]

Posting here for traffic. I want to let people know about this. Because I had no clue this surgery existed until I got cataracts. Basically if you have cataracts or need reading glasses due to getting a bit older, you can have an artificial lens placed in your eye and your eyesight will be perfect again. I had this done a few days ago and it is LIFE CHANGING! I’ve never seen any adverts for this, didn’t even know it was a thing. No more glasses to watch TV or read a text! Mind blown!

I did know this (I’m a +10, yikes!!) but I guess I just didn’t go through with it. Maybe one day if I get cataracts.

A couple of my friends ( without cataracts) have had lens replacements and are absolutely delighted. Will never need glasses again.
I am just starting the process. Not cheap though, £4,000 per eye .

How could you never have heard of this ?
Why were you ‘mortified’ at getting cataracts ?

Oh that's simply not true.

I know somene whose existing lens broke up as they removed it. They did save her sight but it was touch and go. I need it as i have very very poor vision, but it is too expensive.

I was almost blind without glasses- -7.50 in both eyes and laser eye surgery was life changing. I’m older now and my eyes are weaker. I’ve looked into lens replacement surgery but only when I genuinely can’t see again.

Er there is literally a list of possible side effects and serious complications.

And my mum needed glasses again after a year

It's not cheap, but neither are glasses, especially if you have a higher prescription so the basic lenses won't do. It sounds tempting to me, especially now I am middle aged and need to add varifocals soon.

My mum had cataract surgery on the NHS and nothing like this. It wasn't that long ago, so has it changed?

I’m just coming to the end of my lens replacement surgery., which I had done on the same day as my husband in September2025.. His worked out well, (although I suspect he’s not as picky as me …) whereas mine wasn’t as straightforward.
Poor initial results meant I needed YAG treatment which I was assured would improve my still blurred eyesight. But it didn’t. I’ve recently ( in September 2026) had further surgery (laser correction) as I really hadn’t got the range of vision I had been lead to believe I would. I’m due a 1month post surgery check up tomorrow , thankfully I feel happy with the result now. But the process has not been the plain sailing that was sold to me at all.
And just as an aside - so many of us think that short sighted means NOT being able to read etc, ‘ whereas in actual fact it!s the other way round. Shortsighted means you CAN read close , long sighted means you can’t read but you’re great at distance. How confusing …..

You can only get basic Monofocal lenses on the NHS which fixes distance vision only (so you still need reading glasses). If you go private you can select lenses that fix your vision at all distances, so you don't need glasses for anything.

My father had lens surgery along with a cataract operation about 15 years ago. He had always had terrible eyesight and the new lenses were a revelation for him. But it didn’t last - like the poster above his eyesight deteriorated and he had to start wearing glasses again quite quickly.

In terms of risks, how does this procedure work if you suffer from dry eyes? Is that a condition that makes it more complex?

I had lens replacement surgery privately at 49. I was using multiple different glasses as my brain ( I am dyslexic/visual processing disorder) could not processing bi or varifocals.

I did require the YAG laser procedure 6 months after the main surgery which I found uncomfortable and I do still 5 years on get some haloing around car lights at night.
My employer had a 10% discount with optical express and I went to their Westfield Centre the surgeon who carried out my procedure works at Moorfields during the week. My optician has since commented that my lens are perfectly centrally placed so I am very happy with this.
I now have 20:20 vision as I have multifocal lenses, but these are 70% distance and 30% close up. I still need glasses (or phone torch to provide light) to read a menu in a dimly lit place due to not enough light to activate the rings.
I am a veterinary surgeon and I still need reading glasses to place an iv catheter, take a blood sample, clip toe nails and carry out surgery as this requires better than 20:20 due to the level of precision required.
Has lens replacement made my life better - yes. Has it totally eradicated glasses from my life - no because I do very detailed and precise work, but I only have 1 pair of glasses rather than 3 different types.

@dogsaremybusiness

What's the recovery time like after the procedure? Did you have to take time off work or not drive for a while?

I couldn’t drive for 3 days, had to wear sunglasses for 7 days at all times and eye shields in bed at night for 7 days. I had to take 2 weeks off work as I work in a dirty high risk environment. If I worked in an office I could have gone back after 3 days.

Thank you. I had no idea this was a thing. It sounds life changing. I'm off to investigate further. Thanks so much for sharing

They prefer people to be over 50, but I got it as I was 49. Younger they tend to prefer laser.

No. You can still see things close up but so short sighted that even a book is too far a distance. As the PP said, it's definitely a thing and nothing to do with hypermetropia. It's a high degree of myopia.

I had the Op at 2pm. I was sitting with coffee and a biscuit by 220pm. My eye felt a bit gritty for the rest of that day. Next day - revelation - no gritty feeling and 20/20 vision. I do wear sunglasses when I'm walking the dogs, but that's just in case something blows in my eye. I drove the next day. I didn't take any time off work, but I work from home, looking after dogs. If you worked in an office, I'd probably say to take 2 days off, but you could go back the very next day if you wanted to.

What if you have really high astigmatism. Would it work for you

I'm not sure. I do have astigmatism in both eyes, but not sure to what degree.

This is catagorically incorrect.

I already said upthread, that I should have said low risk, not no risk. But let's face it, most things come with a degree of risk. With IOL surgery, only 2% to 5% of people have a complication, and of those, many have a complicated underlying eye condition. 98% success rate seems fab to me.

GEMINI answer:

Yes, IOL surgery can work remarkably well for people with high astigmatism, provided the right type of lens and surgical approach are used.
Having a high astigmatism (an irregularly shaped cornea) simply means that a standard "spherical" intraocular lens (IOL) won't fully correct your visual blur on its own. However, modern cataract and lens replacement technologies are specifically tailored to treat high levels of astigmatism with high success.
How It Works for High Astigmatism

1. Toric IOLs (The Primary Solution)

• Instead of a standard lens, your surgeon can implant a Toric IOL.
• Toric lenses are custom-manufactured to match the exact steep and flat curves of your individual cornea. By orienting the lens at a precise angle inside the eye during surgery, it counteracts and neutralizes your astigmatism from within.
• Modern high-cylinder toric lenses can correct up to 6.00 diopters or more of corneal astigmatism, allowing the vast majority of people with high astigmatism to achieve sharp distance vision without heavy glasses.

1. Combined or Bioptic Approaches (For Very High/Extreme Astigmatism)

If your astigmatism is unusually high (exceeding what a single toric lens can correct):

• Combination Techniques: Surgeons can pair a toric IOL with Limbal Relaxing Incisions (LRIs)—tiny, precise micro-incisions on the outer edge of the cornea to help flatten steep curves.
• Bioptics (IOL + Laser Enhancement): Some patients undergo standard IOL surgery to correct the primary visual prescription, followed weeks or months later by a quick touch-up with corneal laser eye surgery (like LASIK or PRK) to fine-tune any remaining astigmatism.

What Makes High Astigmatism Surgery Slightly Different? While outcomes are overwhelmingly positive (over 90–95% of toric IOL patients report high satisfaction and strong visual outcomes), there are a few important considerations:

• Rotational Precision: A toric lens must stay aligned at a specific angle. With high astigmatism, even a slight shift or rotation of a few degrees can reduce its effectiveness. Fortunately, modern lens designs "grip" the eye's tissue very securely, and if a lens does shift slightly during early healing, a quick in-office or minor adjustment can nudge it back into perfect position.
• Realistic Expectations: For very severe astigmatism, the primary goal of the IOL is to dramatically reduce your prescription rather than eliminate it 100%. You might still need a thin, light pair of prescription glasses or reading glasses for ultimate fine-print clarity, but you won't need thick, heavy visual correction.
• Regular vs. Irregular Astigmatism: Toric IOLs work exceptionally well for regular astigmatism (where the cornea is football-shaped). If you have irregular astigmatism (from conditions like keratoconus or past corneal scarring), your eye surgeon will run specialized 3D scans (topography) to determine if a toric lens or a different strategy is safest.

Summary If you have high astigmatism, IOL surgery using a Toric IOL is currently the gold standard. It turns what would otherwise be blurred post-surgery vision into sharp focus, often significantly reducing your lifelong reliance on strong glasses

Amazing, thank you for starting this thread, it's been a real eye opener (haha). I work in an office close to home, so can easily jump on a bus. Have to be in London most weeks for a day or two but could easily juggle days to fit around that.

Congratulations on having such a successful procedure. I'm going to find somewhere a book a consultation. 🤞

I had my astigmatism and extreme short sightedness corrected over 20 years ago at Manchester Eye Hospital. Best thing ever. Still got perfect distance sight.

But now need reading glasses which I was told would eventually happen.