It's Good to have Options: Crystalens® vs. PanOptix® for Cataract Surgery

In this video, Dr. Ahad Mahootchi and his patient discuss how having different options for cataract lens implants is good. The patient in this video had Crystalens ® put into the dominant eye and PanOptix ® put into the non-dominant eye. It helps with her night vision and with her up close work like reading and sewing. To learn more or to schedule a consultation for your cataract surgery, you can visit us at www.SeeBetterFlorida.com or call us at (813) 779-3338 __________________________________________________________________________
I’m Dr. Mahootchi from The Eye Clinic of Florida. When considering lenses for cataract surgery, we got lots of different options. But there’s not really one option that works great on every single person, a hundred percent of the time. So, it is nice to be able to customize the lens choice to what the patient needs. And frankly, knowing what you get on the first eye helps you guide what you need on the second eye. So, this is a great story of something normally don’t do. We used a PanOptix ® in my patient’s non dominant eye. And then she experienced it and told us what she loved and what she didn’t like. And then we used Crystalens in the dominant eye and now she’s absolutely thrilled. So, this is her story and we hope to have something to share with you that you can learn. Hi, my name is Suzi and I am a patient of Dr. Mahootchi’s. at The Eye Clinic of Florida. We had been talking about cataract surgery for a while and decided that PanOptix® might be our best bet because I need good close up, medium and far vision. So, we did the non-dominant eye with PanOptix ®. I liked the vision, but I wasn’t crazy about the fuzziness at night and the halo effects that I had from the headlights and traffic lights. So, we had talked about taking it out, but decided to wait until we did the dominant eye. And to use Crystalens® with the dominant eye. Once we did the dominant eye, I discovered that the Crystalens ® in the dominant eye overrode the fuzziness but I still had great close up vision. I love the combination! I would not do anything differently. Awesome. So, we often pick lenses based on the patient’s work and how much they drive at night and how tall you are. Because shorter people sometimes need more power to read up close. Tell us what you do for fun. What are your hobbies? I love to sew and quilt and a lot of up-close stuff. So, up close vision is very important. Do you think you drove a lot at night and just realize that you drove more than you thought? Depending on the time of year, of course it stays light really late during the summer and I don’t work as much during the summer. I work primarily January through mid-April, except this year of course. I do taxes at a tax preparation office and during the tax season, I drive every night. So, driving at night is important to me for work. But close-up vision is important for me for work too because I do a lot of close-up work for work. But my hobbies which are sewing and reading also require close-up work. Yeah, I think that the challenge with this is that there is no perfect lens but Crystalens® has great distance, intermediate and fairly good near but not perfect near. But has no side effects at night. And the PanOptix® has great distance, intermediate and near, all three, but has some side effects at night. So, it’s nice to listen to people and I think surgeons need to do more of that. And I appreciate that you did listen to me and I appreciate that you were willing to exchange out the lens if I ended up not being happy with it. And quite frankly. That’s what we do a lot. If the side effects of the first one is really terrible, or you don’t like it, we more often take it out before proceeding. But I think you’re one of the patients doing it the other way. And here’s a good show of why that works and you’re happy. Oh, I am very happy with it. I love the close-up vision of the PanOptix® and I love the clarity at night of the Crystalens®. With the Crystalens® in both eyes, I wouldn’t have the close-up vision that I have now. With the PanOptix ® in both eyes, I probably wouldn’t be happy driving at night. It would be a real problem. That’s a great story, it is very important that the surgeon listens to what the patient says and to evaluate the results of the first eye before going on to the second eye. And that’s what we do at The Eye Clinic of Florida. If you’d like to more or schedule a consultation, please call us at (813) 779-3338