Imagine ditching the hassles of misplaced eyeglasses or contact lens maintenance. Implantable contact lenses (ICLs) offer a permanent refractive vision correction option without the traditional drawbacks associated with contacts and glasses.
Dr. Randa Garrana and our team at Advanced Lasik specialize in a wide range of refractive vision correction procedures. We offer a range of procedures because not every procedure is suitable for every patient — eye conditions, specific refractive errors, and other factors can limit candidacy for certain approaches to better vision.
While ICLs offer remarkable freedom for those who have them, they have a target patient group, so you’ll need to be sure that ICLs are right for you. Here, we take a closer look at how the technology works and when it’s suitable for vision correction.
The ICL contraction has a variety of near-synonymous variations. As well as implantable contact lens, ICL can stand for intraocular lens and implantable collamer lens.
There are subtle differences, but each corrects your vision in a similar way, and each variation can be correctly described as an implantable contact lens.
ICLs are implanted in eye tissue, usually behind the iris and on top of the eye’s natural lens. The lenses themselves are made from biocompatible materials that won’t irritate your natural eye tissue or cause it to react.
Unlike some laser refractive correction procedures, ICLs don’t aggravate or cause dry eye, an irritating disruption of the chemical composition of natural tears. Since the lens sits inside your eye’s construction, it’s permanent and needs no maintenance or cleaning.
Though most patients are completely satisfied with their ICL experience, it has the added benefit of being reversible. It’s possible to remove an ICL without affecting or changing your original eyesight.
The ideal candidate for ICL surgery meets the following prerequisites:
If you don’t qualify for an ICL procedure, there’s likely another vision correction approach that’s right for you.
Ready to learn more about ICL and other refractive eye surgery options? Call or click online to schedule a consultation with Dr. Garrana at your nearest Advanced Lasik office in the Midtown East section of New York City, or Long Beach, California.
