Crystalens®
Serving Monmouth and Ocean Counties, New Jersey
For all of human history until recent years, cataracts have been a major cause of blindness. There has been no way to treat them, and untreated they progress and spread throughout the eye’s lens as opaque, cloudy patches. They prevent incoming light from reaching the retina at the back of the eye, which means the brain cannot receive any image information.
There is still no way to remove cataracts from the eye without removing the lens. In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Crystalens™ for cataract treatment.
What is Crystalens?
Crystalens is an accommodative Intraocular Lens (IOL). It can be inserted into the eye to replace the natural lens and restore clear vision. There are two other IOLs which can also treat cataracts, but they are multifocal, not accommodative.
Read more about How Crystalens Works.
The Lens and Accommodation
When the natural lens is removed from the eye, accommodative ability is removed with it. If you read these words, then examine your fingernail, then glance out the window, you are using your eyes’ accommodative ability. Your eyes automatically change focus each time to the different distances.
This is done by the lens. It is attached on each side by tiny muscles and suspended behind the iris (colored part). Those muscles contract and relax to change the curvature of the lens, making it more convex for close objects and flatter for distant objects. Without the lens, the eye cannot accommodate to differing distances.
One way of making up for loss of accommodation has been LASIK monovision. One eye is left as is (let’s say it’s nearsighted) and the other is treated to be farsighted. Or it could be the other way around. The brain learns to sort out the two sets of incoming visual information and give you relatively clear vision.
Advantages of Crystalens
IOLs have not always been multifocal or accommodative – at first they gave clear vision only at one distance, and the person used glasses. Multifocal IOLs have graded zones or steps in their structure, each set for clear vision within a certain distance range. Together they give clear vision at all distances, or at least most.
Crystalens is controlled by the same eye muscles which previously controlled the natural lens. It does not change its curvature as the natural lens does, but it does mimic the effects of that. When the eye muscles contract and relax, the Crystalens moves slightly forward or back, and this gives clear focus at different distances.
The Crystalens Procedure
It is a simple and short procedure. Anesthetic eyedrops are used to prevent any pain. Using ultrasound, Dr. Almallah carefully disintegrates the natural lens and suctions out the small pieces through a small incision. Then he inserts the Crystalens through the same incision and positions it correctly.
It is a simple and short procedure. Anesthetic eyedrops are used to prevent any pain. Using ultrasound, Dr. Almallah carefully disintegrates the natural lens and suctions out the small pieces through a small incision. Then he inserts the Crystalens through the same incision and positions it correctly.
To learn more about how the eye works and how eye conditions are treated, please look at our 3D-Eye Online Education page. You could also take a virtual tour of our Focus Center.
Please call or email us if you would like a personal consultation. We will be glad to answer your questions and explain what options you could consider to improve your eyesight or eye health. We serve the entire Monmouth and Ocean County areas in New Jersey. Dr. Almallah is a national authority on the Crystalens. He is an invited speaker to national user groups for the Crystalens and written extensively in ophthalmology journals on the topic.