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Press ReleaseNew Corrective Eye Surgery Frees People of All Glasses Even Past Age 50, Says Multifocal LASIK ExpertMCHENRY, Ill., March 30, 2006 -- Are you over forty-five or fifty years old? Are your arms too short? Does someone else have to read the menu for you in the restaurant? Do you have nine pairs of reading glasses? You have presbyopia. There is help for you. LASIK is a brief outpatient procedure that has become quite popular for its success in freeing people of the need for glasses and contact lenses to see in the distance. The problem had been that for people in their forties LASIK would correct distance vision but still leave people needing reading glasses - just as anyone who had natural 20/20 vision and reached middle age would need reading glasses.More recently, multifocal LASIK has been used to reduce or eliminate the need for bifocals, according to Robert L. Epstein, MD, Director of the Mercy Center for Corrective Eye Surgery in McHenry and Niles, Illinois. People who just wear reading glasses can also have the procedure. The procedure works for people even past 65 years old and for those who previously had LASIK or even cataract surgery with artificial lens implantation. Presbyopia happens as the eye loses its ability to change shape of its internal lens. Presbyopia usually becomes noticeable in the early forties to mid-forties. Some signs of presbyopia include a tendency to hold reading materials at arm's length, blurred vision at normal reading distance and eye fatigue, along with headaches when doing close work. Nearsighted people with presbyopia must take off their glasses to read easily. Standard LASIK can be used to give some relief from bifocals by making one eye nearsighted and one eye in focus at distance for what is called monovision. But with increasing age, people with monovision have blurring either for reading or for intermediate distance. Other procedures such as conductive keratoplasty, or CK, give only a temporary result. Multifocal lens implants work well but require surgery within the eye, which carries a greater risk than LASIK. The newer treatment of multifocal LASIK allows for vision for driving, reading and intermediate distance. In multifocal LASIK the excimer laser is used to create more than one curvature on the cornea of the eye to provide more than one natural focal point without the need of the internal lens to change shape. Multifocal LASIK began in development in 1992, and up until recently it has been available only outside the United States. As of now, fewer than five clinics in the U.S. are performing the multifocal LASIK procedure, which is an off-label use of the FDA approved excimer lasers. But that should change within a couple of years because of the excellent results and high demand. Dr. Epstein has been doing the multifocal LASIK procedure since early 2003. According to Dr. Epstein, over ninety percent of his multifocal LASIK patients become completely free of the need for glasses whereas the remaining ones almost all have nearly complete spectacle independence. Other treatments bring vision and eyeglass freedom to people with cataracts. More information is available in Dr. Epstein's new book "Seeing After 45" or through the website http://www.icansee.com. Contact: Robert L. Epstein, MD Director Mercy Center for Corrective Eye Surgery 1-800-422-6733 (1-800-I-CAN-SEE) rlepstein@aol.com Web site: http://www.icansee.com |
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