Crystalens HD

What is Crystalens®?

Crystalens is an accommodating intraocular lens that, unlike a standard IOL, can treat both a person's cataracts and presbyopia-loss of near and intermediate vision. You probably noticed in your forties that you started to lose some of your up-close vision and had to start wearing reading glasses. Crystalens not only treats your cataracts (a clouding or hardening of your lens), but can also reduce or eliminate your dependence on glasses. It does so by recreating accommodation similar to your eye's natural lens. The unique Crystalens can reduce or eliminate glasses for most activities, including: reading a book, working on the computer, and driving a car.

Crystalens was modeled after the human eye. Like the natural lens, it uses the eye muscle to flex and accommodate in order to focus on objects in the environment at all distances. Crystalens dynamically adjusts to your visual needs.

Crystalens is designed to allow the optic, or the central circular part of the lens that you see through, to move back and forth as you constantly change focus on images around you. Crystalens flexes as you focus your vision.

Crystalens is:

  • The first and only FDA-approved accommodating intraocular lens
  • The only FDA-approved intraocular lens that uses the natural focusing ability of the eye
  • The only FDA-approved presbyopia correcting IOL for cataract patients that provides a single focal point throughout a continuous range of vision

Few patients with Crystalens have experienced problems with glare, halos and night vision. Crystalens focuses only one image to the back of the eye, unlike a multifocal lens that projects multiple images, requiring your brain to "adjust" to the differences.

Crystalens was the first presbyopia correcting IOL introduced into the United States market and is currently the only FDA-approved accommodating IOL. Crystalens addresses the limitations of standard monofocal IOLs and multifocal IOLs by providing the following advantages to patients:

  • Provides a Broad Range of Vision: Crystalens moves and changes shape using the eye's natural focusing mechanism, instead of remaining fixed and stationary within the eye. This movement, or accommodation, allows the eye to focus on objects across a broad range of distances to reduce or eliminate dependence on glasses. In particular, this accommodation provides significant advantages in addressing intermediate vision.
  • Maintains Clarity of Vision: Unlike multifocal lenses, Crystalens directs all available light received by the eye to a single focal point, comparable to that of a healthy natural lens.
  • Patient Adjustment Not Required: Crystalens produces a single image consistent with normal vision, meaning patients do not need to neuroadapt to viewing multiple images. Patients also do not need to tolerate or adjust to high levels of halos and glare often associated with multifocal IOLs.

Dr. Militello can determine if a Crystalens implant is right for you.