toric implants

These are implants used in cataract surgery designed to counteract the eye’s natural astigmatism.  Astigmatism is the condition where the eye isn’t round, but has an oval shape similar to the side of a football.  This is relatively easy to correct with glasses, as the mirror image of the “football” can be ground into a pair of spectacles and rotated in the glasses frame until the vision is perfected.  Astigmatism can now be corrected during cataract surgery using a “toric implant” that has this football correction built in. During cataract surgery, the new toric implant is inserted to replace the old cloudy cataract. The toric implant is then spun until its “football” is lined up to offset the eye’s natural astigmatism. While there is no guarantee that a toric lens will keep someone completely “glasses free” after surgery, these implants significantly decrease astigmatism and lessen your dependence on glasses afterward.