A BC optometrist, Dr. Garth Webb has come up with a new lens that can achieve three times normal vision. It has been technically developed, but needs to go through clinical trials to pass the regulatory bodies.
This lens has qualities unlike conventional lenses that are implanted to replace cataracts. When in place the patient will not need reading glasses, bifocals or progressive lenses. Contacts will also no longer be necessary.
Dr. Webb gave a presentation at a workshop in San Diego where 14 top ophthalmologists were gathering for a meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.
Dr. Vincent deLuise, an ophthalmologist who teaches at both Yale University and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York commented: “I think this device is going to bring us closer to the holy grail of excellent vision at all ranges — distant, intermediate and near”.
When the device is approved for being implanted, it will only take 8 minutes to do and is similar to cataract surgery. The surgery is simpler than cataract surgery as the custom-made lens is folded like a taco in a saline-filled syringe that is used to place it into an eye, where it would unravel itself within 10 seconds.
“If you can just barely see the clock at 10 feet, when you get the Bionic Lens you can see the clock at 30 feet away,” says Webb. But at the same time you can also read a news paper without any glasses or contact lenses. Dr. Webb is hopeful that laser eye surgery will no longer be needed when his lens is implanted. He says that laser procedures still are not as efficient as they could be.
Dr. Webb has worked on the project for the past 8 years. He spent 3 millions in research and development fees. A manufacturing plant in Delta, BC in the Greater Vancouver area is involved in the project and ready for large production.
Bionic Lens For Better Vision
It will still take a few years for this new technology to get the approval in Canada and the US, but Dr. Webb is well on his way.
More information about cataract surgery: https://nethealthbook.com/eye-diseases-and-eye-related-topics/cataract/
