New Bionic Lens Could Give You Vision BETTER Than 20/20 For Life

[polly7]

June 2, 2015 by Amanda Froelich


Credit: Ocumetics Technology Corp

Better-than-perfect vision is a thing of science-fiction, right? Not anymore!

According to Business Insider, the new Ocumuetics Bionic Lens implant could remedy impaired vision forever. Invented by Dr. Garth Webb of Ocumetics Technology Corp, the lens will go beyond offering standard 20/20 vision and give patients the super power of seeing three times better.

The innovative invention was presented last month at a cataract and refractive surgery conference after its development took over eight years of research and experimentation. The project itself cost a whopping $3 million in funding for research, international patents, and trials. Dr. Webb says that with his procedure, which takes just eight painless minutes, every person could have extraordinary vision.

Different than working like a contact lens, the Bionic Lens acts similarly to cataract surgery, adhering to the eye’s natural lens. The procedure can be done in an out patents office, its steps simply having a saline solution with the lens flushed into the eye with a syringe. After 10 seconds, the folded lens opens up and moves itself over the eye’s natural lens.

Webb says that immediately after the procedure, vision is totally corrected. It then should allow patients to see farther and more clearly.

Full article: http://www.trueactivist.com/new-bionic-lens-could-give-you-vision-better-than-2020-for-life/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TrueActivist+%28True+Activist%29

[Sienna86]

1. Although any kind of eye surgery is scary to me

I would love to do this once it is proven safe.

[polly7]

3. I hope when my eyes get bad this is available up here.

It sure seems promising!

[djean111]

2. I have the first faint beginnings of cataracts. I understand that Medicare will pay for

basic surgery and lenses. The really good stuff is beyond my means. I will hope that this becomes common and affordable in time for me to really need it!

[polly7]

4. For sure ... this is something that should be available to anyone. nt.

[jeff47]

5. Well, "basic" does give you the equivalent of single-focus eyeglasses.

So you'd probably only need cheap drugstore reading glasses. (Obviously depends on your particular eye problems)

Also, this particular surgery wouldn't fix cataracts. Your lenses would still be in place, and they're the problem with cataracts. I also just got diagnosed, but am nowhere near Medicare, so I "get" to cover the ~$4k/eye with a lovely HSA-based insurance plan from my employer. Not looking forward to it.

[djean111]

7. I am astoundingly near-sighted, plus astigmatism, plus far-sighted.

Twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to find a Mayo clinic symptoms book at the grocery store, and read about how I had very little time to get to an eye doctor if I did not want the "flashers and floaters" that had just started to turn into a detached retina. And then no sight in one eye. (This was before casual internet access to everything). Called the insurance company, their HMO eye person saw me at once, admitted she could do nothing, made some calls, and by 5 I was sitting in a little room in a laser clinic, having my retina tacked back up to my eyeball with a bunch of little laser bursts. Interesting experience, and the laser guy said I would be back for cataract surgery in about 20 years, and he was pretty accurate. I will try and save up the money for better lenses, because i have always been fantastically near-sighted, now need bifocals, and want to know what it is like to wake up and be able to see without glasses or thinking Oh ****** I forgot to take out my contact lenses. I got my first pair of those when I was 19. Huge things, and if you forgot to take them out you got a scratched cornea and that was horribly painful. I could always tell if someone else had them in because it made one look surprised or skeptical.

It is funny how Medicare does not pay for some of the things the elderly will need the most - eyeglasses, hearing aids, dentures. Even my supplemental insurance only pays $50 towards glasses. Thank goodness for Costco. For glasses.

Anyway, I am so sorry to hear that you need to pay for cataract surgery. I know a guy who had to have that done when he was around 35 or so - he did say that now he had perfect vision.

[SheilaT]

6. What exactly is three times better?

20/05?

And what happens when you reach that delightful time in life when you start needing reading glasses?

I had cataract surgery nearly three years ago (I'm now 66) and I tell everyone that cataracts are the very best thing that ever happened to my eyes. I could not see the blackboard in first grade, got my first pair of glasses shortly thereafter. Every year I needed new stronger lenses. When I was 17 I got lenses, the hard ones, and the nice thing about them was that they stopped the deterioration of my vision quite nicely. A decade or so later I switched to soft lenses, and my eyes resumed getting worse, although not as quickly as when I was younger.

I'd been told in my early 40's that I had the beginning of cataracts, but essentially nothing much happened until my early 60's, when all of a sudden the cataracts got much worse.

My health insurance covered the basics, and I am very glad I paid extra for better lenses. I know that not everyone can possibly afford the upgrade, but if you can, do so. You should have several options, even with the basics, but I'm not entirely clear on that. In my case, I could have chosen lenses that corrected my far vision and I'd still need reading glasses (which is what I went with), lenses that would correct my near vision but I'd need glasses for driving my car, or have a close-up correction lens in one eye and a far-out correction in the other (otherwise known as monovision) which is also a choice some contact lens wearers make. The main thing will be to think it through because they can't really go in and change out the lenses afterwards.

Because I was only 63 at the time, I was by at least a full decade, and often more like two decades, the youngest person at all the appointments leading up to my surgery, as well as at the surgery place itself. Many older people have put off the surgery because they know how much more of a big deal it was a while back, including the fact that earlier surgeries didn't take out all the cataract and they were likely to grow back.

The very first time your eye doctor says, It's time, go for it. I can't get over how wonderful it is to wake up in the morning and I CAN SEE! My vision is actually slightly better than 20/20, and I apparently had even better results than my eye doctor expected. I feel as if I can read small signs on distant mountains. Last summer I was visiting my son who lives in Portland, OR, and we were at one of the parks just to the west of downtown, on top of a hill, overlooking the city. We also had a very clear view of the airport, and I was fascinated to be watching the planes land. They were crystal clear to me, and back in the days when I wore contact lenses, I doubt I would have been able to see the planes at all.

If you get cataracts, the surgery is the best thing ever.

[djean111]

8. Thank you!!!! I posted right above you, before reading your story, and now I feel much better about

having to get the surgery in a year or two or three.

I just wear one contact right now (I have both, but only wear one), I am most comfortable with monovision, although it bothers other people when I read if I choose to use the eye without the contact lens. I also have glasses. And when I first started school, I could not see the blackboard, and everybody - me included - just thought I was dumb. When you are a kid you do not understand about vision, you assume you are like everyone else. My first contact lenses, mid-1960s - big as dinner plates, but I could see leaves for the first time, I was enchanted with being able to see little things.

Thanks again for your post, and when I find out more about what I need I hope it is okay if I ask you some questions!

[SheilaT]

9. Absolutely.

Feel free to PM me.

Too many people put of cataract surgery for years. I have no idea what difference that makes in the ultimate outcome, or how much age makes a difference, but I could not be happier.