As my life careers into middle age like a freight train, my eyes are now starting to deteriorate. Currently its not too bad and only need to wear my glasses if i’ve got tired eyes or on other rare occasions where I feel I need to. However I dread the time I have to start wearing them permanently and decided from the outset that i’d have them zapped at the earliest opportunity when my prescription settled. I know many people who have had them zapped with absolutely zero adverse effects.

However, someone I know is going to have a consultation for a different method where the lens is actually replaced with a man-made synthetic lens. Apparently its a procedure that has been used for ages to treat Cataract and sorts out both long and short sightedness and won’t deteriorate with old age – obviously zapping your eyes only delay’s the deterioration of your eyes.

My thinking is that now my eyes are definitely deteriorating I won’t have to wait for my prescription to settle and can go straight for this procedure.

Apparently the procedure is very similar to Lazek laser surgery where the lens is partially removed so your retina can get zapped – all they do here is completely remove the lens and replace it so the procedure only takes 20 mins or so and the benefits are immediate apart from a bit of minor irritation for a few days after.

Has anyone got any experience of it? Cheers.

Mrs hanchurch had lens implants 4 years ago (her eyes were too bad for laser surgery). They are implants that work with your own lenses not replacements. This means that later down the line she can have new implants if her eyesight deteriorate with age unlike laser surgery that can’t always be repeated. The procedure was 100% successful and her vision is better than 20/20 for the first time in her life. Highly recommend it, even though you could get an awesome bike for the cost!

The replacement lens thing is not for all. My MIL had this for cataract treatment and because she didn’t keep on top of problems arising she is now blind. Do not ignore any problems with your vision after the event. The lenses can deteriorate and leave you blind (not dark but unable to read, watch the TV blind).

You can have a lazer consultation for free which I suggest you do for better advice. FWIW during lazer surgery the cornea is cut allowing the lens to be shaped. I had it done at 31, have better than 20:20 vision and they are not expecting any different outcome to the natural process where you go towards long sighted in your 40’s and need reading glasses.

Just remember you have one pair of eyes if you damage them too badly by unnessary surgery and the outcome is not good you may be blind just saying as an ex ophthalmic sales rep I used to talk about this very fact to many ophthalmic surgeons and not one said they’d have laser eye surgery that glasses are the safest option and contacts if you need to for sport etc.

My bro in law had laser treatment against my advice and now suffers with dry eyes and has to wea glasses on occasions not what he was expecting

Start doing some eye exercises…

Mine where getting pretty poor (51) until I started doing some exercises before I got up every day, not they are a fair bit better, and don’t deteriorate so much when I am tired.

I haven’t been doing the near-to-far type exercises though, so they are not as good as they could be.

I am a programmer so my eyes get pretty hammered and I am also sensitive to fluorescent light flicker (and the old CRT flicker).

I go full travel on the eye movements and it feels like stretching out muscles – your eyes are immediately more relaxed afterwards. Particularly good for combating the effects of fluorescent lights in supermarkets, where my vision can be affected in a very short space of time.

No doubt people will now deride such exercise, like they deride osteopaths when threads about them come up. But those people are just fools and deserved to be ignored…

Eye exercises will NOT improve your vision, period. The loss of near vision as you age is nothing to do with weakening muscles, it’s the lens in the eye losing its elasticty.

This is not foolish it is fact.

The procedure you’re on about is a cataract op, clear lens extraction, replacing your lens with an acrylic implant which in itself wouldn’t correct presbyopia unless you opt for a multifocal lens to give you some near range.

LASER refractive surgery can then finetune the result to remove any residual error left.

This is a more invasive procedure than a straight forward LASER corneal surgery but can yield good results especially for complicated prescriptions.

Generally a safe, routinely done op. When done to treat cataract rough risk outcomes are:

1:100 no better off
1:1000 worse of [significantly]
1:10000 loss of eye

Do your research and book a consultation with an ophthalmologist to see if you’re suitable.

Eye exercises will NOT improve your vision, period.

Well that is patently wrong.

so symptoms such as when you are looking at something on your desk and someone comes through the door into the room, so you look up but can’t focus on them – that’s nothing to do with muscles and doing eye exercises to keep those muscles in shape won’t do anything?

About 20 years ago my eyes were in a poor state and I thought I had better get some driving glasses. Did a load of eye exercises so my eyes were in a consistent state before I got them tested. I got .5 lenses, and they were too strong and gave me headaches…

And when I used to play golf I would hit balls at the practice area for 3 hours, which involved looking at the ball at my feet, then try to watch it fly 150 or more yards, and then trying to spot the off-white balls in the grass when I collected them up for the next hit. My vision would be so clear and so much better afterwards.

The guy that came up with the exercises in the first place had reached a point where they couldn’t prescribe anything stronger. Whilst he could still read he did some research and came up with the exercises, and I believe may even have weaned himself off glasses.

As I said, there will be fools along to dismiss the idea…

So you could dismiss eye exercises and just go for the surgery, or even glasses.

No it’s patently correct

Eye exercises can be used to improve the control of binocular vision, mostly in children to improve the ways the eyes work together.

The loss of focus with age[presbyopia] startswhen you’re a teenager, the lens proteins gradually stiffen over time making the lens less elastic. The lens is attached to the accommodating [ciliary] muscle by some fibres [like tendons] When your ciliary muscle is relaxed the fibres are pulled tight and the lens is pulled into its ‘distance’ shape. To accommodate the cilliary muscle which is a sphincter muscle contracts, the fibres attached to the lens relax and the lens relaxes into it’s ‘near’ fatter shape.

As you get older the muscle still contracts, the fibres relax but the lens stays in it’s thinner ‘distance’ form, and takes alot longer to adjust its shape.

When you look up from your desk to the door and adjust the focus this lag in shape change is what you perceive.

Biological fact

Next you’ll be saying homeopathic eyedrops can dissolve cataract

And William Horatio Bates, was derided in the early 1900’s as a quack when he wrote that book.

So you could dismiss eye exercises and just go for the surgery, or even glasses.

Best advice you’ve given.

When you look up from your desk to the door and adjust the focus this lag in shape change is what you perceive.

so I restarted my exercises because I suffered this pretty badly one day – but now I don’t.

Is that not improved vision ? I think it is.

I was also having to walk down the railway platform to be able to read the signs to see what the next train was, and now I don’t just have to squint a bit maybe.

I think that is also improved vision.

Or what is your definition of improved vision – the transfer of a lot of money to an ophthalmologist ?

I knew you would deride that Bates guy, what was the complaint – that he wasn’t actually a strong prescription wearer and managed to reduce his prescription ?

Anyway – exercises work for me. If the OP doesn’t want to see if he can effect some improvement then that is up to him.

Your anecdote does not constitute evidence. You can try all the palming & sunning you want the ‘science’ behind it is bogus.

My definition of improved vision would be reading further down my letter chart, something quantifiable.

Acuity can change all through the day depending on light levels, fatigue, contrast, general health conditions, any number of variables.

If the OP wants to effect some improvement he should seek professional advice not 100 year old quackery.
Maybe go for the vintage cataract op, couching. Google that bad boy, it’s even older than Bates method so it must be better!!

Thanks all. I’ll wait a bit longer as currently i don’t need to wear glasses all the time right now, so is not really impacting me too much – just considering options – and of course i’ll be seeking professional advice when the time comes – as much as I respect the STW Massif opinions. I was just trying to gauge if there are many people out there who have had this done for the purposes of eyesight correction. I know a lot of people who have had the laser treatment, but nobody who’s had this lens replacement procedure. I’m not going to start wearing glasses at this late stage in life, so i’m definitely going to do something. It seems ridiculous to me that in this day and age people still walk around with pieces of glass perched on their noses.

Yes you can get a very nice bike for the money, but a nicer bike won’t enhance my quality of life and won’t last the rest of my life – i’ll be hankering after a new one after a few years.

I’m not going to start wearing glasses at this late stage in life

I have relatively mild short sight and wore contacts all day every day from 18 to 50. I couldn’t imaging having to wear glasses. But at 50 aging started to make reading harder. It was either reading glasses over the contacts, or varifocal glasses. I went for the varifocals, and now wear contacts only for canoe/kayak and skiing.

The glasses are nowhere near the problem I thought they’d be, and are infinitely preferable to having unnecessary surgery on the only pair of eyes I’ll ever have. It may be low risk, but it’s high consequence.

Tbh glasses aren’t no big deal….

I ride a lot an surprisingly I wear oakleys … I always have a giggle at the laser surgery videos that show some happy mtb’er riding without glasses – obviously no flys grit or low hanging branches,bushes on that trail then an no sun.

dunno if id go for a procedure that ‘just’ involves opening up your eye and popping a new lens for vanity reasons tbh, however if I had an eye issue which would affect my vision then a different matter….

just get old outrageously anyway…

My definition of improved vision would be reading further down my letter chart, something quantifiable.

having to walk less far towards the signs at the rail station counts as quantifiable…

Having the impression that my eyes are less tired at the end of the day, or that I can focus from near to far quicker, may not be as it is my impression.

Acuity can change all through the day depending on light levels, fatigue, contrast, general health conditions, any number of variables.

I know all about that – in one job when I left at the end of the day it was like looking through net curtains.

With eye exercising the degradation of my eyesite over the day is a lot less, which I can also tell from the difficulty in reading the train signs on the way home.

The exercises I do are not the same as Bates as I am more aggressive in the movements and travel, and number of reps. I don’t do the palming stuff, but that can actually be a useful technique to refresh your eyes if they are very fatigued, from long hours at the computer for example.

dunno if id go for a procedure that ‘just’ involves opening up your eye and popping a new lens for vanity reasons tbh, however if I had an eye issue which would affect my vision then a different matter….

After an injection to dissolve the old lens first!!

Currently its not too bad and only need to wear my glasses if i’ve got tired eyes or on other rare occasions where I feel I need to. However I dread the time I have to start wearing them permanently.

won’t enhance my quality of life

I’ve worn glasses since my early teens, every waking hour of my life. Apart from a couple of hours once when I broke my glasses. Despite having dry eyes and putting up with uncomfortable contact lenses, then returning to glasses full time and working outside in the rain/mud and working with grease that gets on your glasses, I wouldn’t say they have an effect on my quality of life!

Glasses can be a bit inconvenient sometimes but not a problem. I was contemplating surgery but recently changed my mind, I also had a passing interest in the implantable lenses as you can change them again later etc and the surgeon reckoned they’d be able to do some wacky stuff with the lenses in the future, but reading the leaflet the procedure is more risky than laser.

After an injection to dissolve the old lens first!!

Yuk 🙁

Tbh I’m hoping they’ll sort out the brain interface stuff then we can interface with cameras and I can have proper night vision and strava overlays on my vision…and my own personal drone so I can get that perfect action shot 🙂

having pent 2 hours last summer in an operating theatre at Morefields last summer having the retina of my left eye stitched back on I’m in no sense of the word looking forwards to the future possibility of having cataracts removed in, hopefully about 20 years. They’ll have to put me under general I reckon.

I’ve had 4 operations and a valve transplant due to glaucoma. It’s my dream to only need glasses.

Eyes are delicate, long term I’d never choose invasive work unless essential.

My bro in law had laser treatment against my advice and now suffers with dry eyes and has to wea glasses on occasions not what he was expecting

So are you suggesting that it never works, or just that you were scaremongering and unfortunately he was one of the very small percentage to suffer complications?

worn glasses or contacts most of my life, and TBH if I could get of my arse and get them lasered, I probably would

Further to what Greybeard posted, I’ve recently switched to multi-focus contact lenses. I can read and see (fairly well) longer distances, but they are ideal for medium length use (ie computer monitor) and, more importantly, cycling!

If I go to events where I need to see clearly at distance (cinema, sports events etc) I switch to plain long-distance lenses or glasses. I really don’t get on with glasses though and not prepared to have any type of surgery.

Like everything, the lenses are not for everyone but worth a try.

ps. they’re not like bi-focal glasses where the bottom is for close vision – more the centre of the lens is for close and the outside for distance. It’s clever how your eyes get used to this.

This video is worth watching if only because it is quite amusing at the start !

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAF07V_FWe8[/video]

You sure that “Improves” your eyesight, rather than slowing deterioration?

(Video best watched on double speed with music playing, by the way 🙂 )

My parents have both had lens replacement surgery with the new multiple focus lenses.

My dad’s was a complete success – though it did take a year for his eyesight to become completely sharp – and his vision is now 20/20 without glasses at all distances, and will stay that way.

My mum’s (on her request) was slightly biased towards close-up work so she can read / use a computer etc without glasses, but for driving her previously excellent vision is now merely passable, in her opinion.

I’d go for it, you can always get them swapped down the road.

You sure that “Improves” your eyesight, rather than slowing deterioration?

probably just slows deterioration of function, but there’s not a lot of difference pragmatically. If I slow deterioration over the years I may make it to retirement, or death, without needing glasses…

As you get older all your muscles deteriorate faster and you need to exercise them to keep them in reasonable shape – so why not the muscles in your eyes ?

That video is best not watched at all.

Dry eyes occur in about 25% post LASER but of varying degrees

Those exercises do neither.

Those exercises do neither.

so what specific reason do you have for not exercising your eye muscles ?

Why is it advisable that I don’t try to counter the strain and vision deterioration caused by being subjected to 50Hz flickering florescent lights, or long hours at the computer?

How many pairs of glasses should I buy to counter my gradually reducing vision during the day because of fatigue caused by everyday life, when doing exercises manages to dramatically reduce the amount of fatigue and deterioration experienced during the day?

Any why should I sit there at the end of the day with tired/fatigued eyes watching blurry pictures on my HD TV, when I could do a few exercises and ‘loosen’ them up and then watch glorious high-definition pictures ?

Flickering lights may strain your eyes but they won’t deteriorate your vision.
Exercises can be used to gain better control of your binocular vision function but your eye muscles don’t need exercising in the sense that you’d exercise your leg muscles.

What do you believe the eye muscles do to correct your vison?

You can probably save yourself a load of time by just taking regular breaks from the computer screen & simply looking out of the window.

Flickering lights may strain your eyes but they won’t deteriorate your vision.

If I am exposed to flickering lights and then see everything less well afterwards, then that is deteriorated vision, is it not?

I can go into the supermarket and be exposed to their flickering lights for just a brief time, and my vision will be impacted and won’t correct itself when I come back out of the store, unless I do some exercises.

Taking breaks and staring out of windows at work won’t cut it to keep my eyes in good shape – I have been programming for nearly 30 years so I think I know what works and what doesn’t.

Clearly not if you believe in the Bates method. Programming you may understand, but the physiology of the eye, no. Having said that the exercises won’t be doing any harm, providing you have regular eye examinations to check eye health then crack on.

I can go into the supermarket and be exposed to their flickering lights for just a brief time, and my vision will be impacted and won’t correct itself when I come back out of the store, unless I do some exercises.

I’d suggest that that is a bit weird.

Programming you may understand, but the physiology of the eye, no.

yes but I am the one looking through my eyes so can see the effects.

Programming I understand and keeping my eyes in decent shape I also understand.

I’d suggest that that is a bit weird.

not necessarily – 50Hz is way too low a frequency for lights and certain people can see the effects, or are affected by them.

I say a documentary years ago where they put some woman in a frame where they monitored her eye movements.

They placed a piece of paper with some text in front of here. She had to look at the first word of the first paragraph, and then when they said go she had to look for the first word of a paragraph further down the text.

With 100Hz lighting he eyes just went straight to the other word.

With 50Hz you could see he eyes shoot past the word as the light flickered off, and then her eyes stopped and reversed when the light came on, but overshot again as it went dark again.

So she was getting eye strain because her muscles had so much more work to do than with decent lighting.

I have blue eyes and I understand blue eyed people can see this effect more. I used to have some pink lensed glasses that effectively filtered out this flicker, so I could even look at a teletext screen on a CRT. But when you took them off you were even more sensitive to flicker, so overall they didn’t work that well.