Monofocal Intraocular lenses or Monofocal IOLs are a type of cataract lenses that we implant in the eyes during your cataract surgery. Eyhance IOL, which we think is the best Monofocal IOL, is one of the newest types of Monofocal lenses. You can read more about it later in this article. Technis is another excellent lens. More about the Technis monofocal lens price in India later. There are, however, many Cataract lens brands available in the market.
A Monofocal intraocular lens, once implanted in the eye, provides clear distance vision. One must wear reading glasses for near vision activities like reading a book or looking at the phone. In the more commonly used monofocal lenses, intermediate and near vision are not significant without glasses. These are the standard aspheric monofocal IOLs.
Later in this article, you will read about a monofocal lens that provides an extended range of vision and significantly improved intermediate vision. After undergoing the surgical procedure of cataract surgery, the need to wear glasses thus reduces.
Apart from a monofocal IOL, one could choose from a range of vision IOLs. These are Toric Lens, Multifocal lens, Extended depth of focus lens, or a Trifocal Lens, and one could read about these lenses and their benefits. You must consult your eye doctors before deciding upon a lens and necessary eye care.
This page talks about Monofocal lenses and the best monofocal IOL. There is another article on the best cataract lens too.
Stepping back, let's talk about the natural lens of the eye. The eye's natural lens is like the lens of an autofocus camera. This natural lens can change shape. Thus, one would see far, near, and in-between in their younger days. When the distance that one is looking at changes, the power of the lens must change. Our natural lens does that wonderfully and quickly. As this natural lens ages, the ability to change shape slowly reduces. Thus one starts wearing reading glasses at around the age of 42 years. The lens becomes brown/white as we age further, causing a cataract. Read more about cataract surgery.
There are many monofocal lens brands available from which patients can choose. Ophthalmology is a very advanced speciality in India. Thus, all international brands are available in India. Abbot medical optics (now owned by Johnson and Johnson), Alcon, Zeiss, Rayner, and Hoya are a few International brands. Aurolab, Appasamy, and Iocare are the more popular Indian Brands. All the lenses are excellent, but there is always a minor difference between each.
Usually, eye surgeons are comfortable using one or two brands. Ophthalmologists tend to get comfortable with one or two brands because of ease of use. They also get used to the great results they have been getting with these brands.
From a volume perspective, the two most common international lens brands are Abbot medical optics (now owned by Johnson and Johnson) and Alcon. The well-known Indian brands are the ones mentioned above. We at Eye Solutions have used all the lens brands mentioned above. However, we are most comfortable using the Abbot IOL brands or Johnson and Johnson IOL brands.
Abbot medical optics has three monofocal lenses. Sensar, Technis and Eyhance lenses. Technis used to be the most popular lens till the Eyhance lens entered the market. Please note that it is still an excellent lens, and many of our patients still choose the technis lens. More about the technis monofocal lens price in India later in this article. More about Johnson and Johnson cataract lens price in India.
The most popular lens from Alcon would be the Acrysof Iq. It Is an excellent lens. However, we at Eye Solutions prefer to use the Abbot lenses for specific technical reasons. To explain these would be beyond the scope of this article. Yet, for the sake of discussion, one could consider the Abbot technis and Alcon Iq to be in a very similar price range. Please do write to us if you would like to know more.
The monofocal IOL, as the name suggests, is a lens that focuses on one distance only. The doctor will choose the best monofocal lens based on the required focus distance. More often, we prefer a monofocal lens that focuses for far. This choice means that you will be able to see things far without glasses. Because this is an artificial lens, it cannot focus when you want to look at anything near. Thus one would not see things like the menu at a restaurant or their mobile phone without reading glasses.
As mentioned, there are many cataract lens brands of monofocal lenses available. The difference between the various monofocals could be the shape of the lens or the material of the lens. In general, hydrophobic lens materials are better than hydrophilic lens materials. They tend to cause less inflammation after surgery and "After cataract." After Cataract is also known as "Posterior Capsular Opacification."
One can safely say that all the monofocal lens types are excellent and last a lifetime once implanted. Yet, our current best monofocal lens is the Eyhance lens. Another favourite lens is the technis monofocal lens. Why is Eyhance IOL the favourite? Read at the end of this article.
More people choose monofocal lenses than any other type of lens. There are a few reasons for this.
The first is that they feel they would not adjust to multifocal lenses. Someone may have told them that multifocal IOLs are not good. They think they would not like the Multifocal lenses because they would be like their progressive glasses. This thought is not valid. The technology used in progressive lenses and Multifocal IOLs is entirely different.
Sometimes your ophthalmologist may advise against using a Multifocal lens for specific medical reasons.
Now, Here is the good news. Johnson and Johnson recently introduced a new FDA-approved Monofocal IOL in the market. This lens gives the patient about 70% glass-free near vision. Some of our patients have up to 90% glass-free near vision with the Eyhance IOL. So this lens surgery would be cheaper than multifocal lens surgery. It would give you decent near vision and avoid the disadvantages of a Multifocal lens. Read more about Multifocal lenses.
The name of the lens is 'Eyhance IOL.' We believe that this is the best monofocal IOL at this point, around March 2020. This lens is available within the Technis platform and is thus also known as the Technis Eyhance IOL model.
Read more about the Eyhance lens from Johnson and Johnson and the cataract lens price.