Inside everyone’s eye is a lens.  Just like with a camera, the lens of your eye helps you to focus on things whether they are nearby or far away.  To work well, the lens must be clear. As you age, the lens of your eye gradually becomes cloudy. We call a cloudy lens a cataract.

As you continue to get older, the cataract gets more and more cloudy, and eventually not even a change in your glasses prescription will improve your sight.   At that point, the only way to restore your vision is to remove the cataract.  Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed on adults in the United States.   The procedure is performed on an outpatient basis.

Once the cataract is out, you will need a new lens in order to focus after surgery.  Artificial lens implants come in many different strengths, like glasses, and before your cataract operation, your doctor will perform several measurements to determine the appropriate lens implant strength for your eye.

Your doctor may place implants in your eyes with the appropriate strength for you to see well at a distance, and you can wear reading glasses when you want to see up close, such as for reading.

An alternative to the standard lens implant is the Crystalens implant, which may reduce or possibly eliminate your need for glasses.

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. It can reduce or eliminate your dependence on glasses 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.