 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Rainwaltz
Date: 2020-05-23 19:34
Interested in opinions of musicians who have had cataract surgery about what is best choice for implanted lens. I play mostly clarinet - standing, sitting - as well as saxophone where in big bands the fronts can be low and you're standing/half crouch looking at the sheet.
Having cataract surgery this Tues and have choice of far, intermediate, or near focal length monofocal lens. Multifocal lens apparently is not an option for technical/medical reasons.
Since I spend a LOT of time practicing, and previously performing- I thought maybe intermediate lens would be best since I wouldn't need glasses to play, and hopefully wouldn't have to stay immobile while playing, but I would need glasses for driving. If I get distance lenses, then I would need glasses to play. It also occurs to me that if intermediate implanted lenses don't work well you're stuck them. Also considered different focal lengths for each eye, with the notion that brain eventually gets used this and corrects the images. Again if it doesn't work out - stuck with them. Opthalmologist basically says its my choice.
What has been the experience here. Suggestions?
Thanks.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2020-05-23 20:29
I know you asked for opinions from people who have had cataract surgery. I haven't had cataracts removed yet. They're there, but apparently not at a point that makes removing them medically necessary, which means the surgery isn't yet covered by insurance. I do have a reaction to your dilemma, though, based on my experience with contact lenses.
I've been able to use multi-focal contacts for years, but before those I used a distance prescription, adding glasses for close and intermediate (music) reading. Even with multi-focal lenses, I still need glasses for very small print, reading in poor light and reading old music with not-quite clear chromatic marks. My optometrist tries on occasion to improve my close reading by increasing the reading "add" in my contacts, but the result is always that, while reading is better, every time I look at anything farther than a few feet away, it's slightly blurry. Since even in my pre-COVID-19 era playing and reading activities I still was looking at distance most of my day, I've chosen the multi-focal combination with clearer distance over the ones with better close vision.
If you *like* wearing glasses, I suppose wearing them for distance (meaning most of the time) isn't the worst thing that could happen, but I much prefer driving, walking and other activities that don't involve close acuity without frames sitting on my nose. My personal opinion is that, given your choices, I'd take the clear distance vision and deal with whatever I needed to do for playing and reading.
Karl
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Author: genekeyes ★2017
Date: 2020-05-23 21:57
I had cataract surgery in both eyes about 8 years ago. I opted for the correction which allowed me to drive (walk etc.) without glasses. In addition, I have a pair of mid range glasses corrected so that I can read music comfortably and a pair of bifocals corrected for music in the upper lens and reading in the lower lens. These also work very well for computer work and for normal reading.
Gene
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Author: Dan Paprocki
Date: 2020-05-23 22:09
I had cataract surgery 20 years ago. I had them try for music stand distance. Basically arm's length. The surgeries were fine but it was a trade off of see the music, see the conductor, read, and drive. I tried glasses with divided lenses for orchestra; top for distance and bottom no correction - it was ok.
Now what I do is have a multi focal contact in one eye and no lens in the other, so I have what's called mono vision. This works the best for me. Reading is fine, music stand distance is good, and long distance if good. It's very hard to hit on the right combination of things to solve the focus distances that musicians need after cataract surgery
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2020-05-23 22:26
I had cataract surgery about a decade ago. One eye close in for hobby work/reading cell phone, one about 18in for computer work, and wear thin glasses to drive. Vision is good enough without glasses to watch TV including reading captions without glasses.
My brain switches dominant eye automatically.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2020-05-24 05:09
I had cataract surgery in both eyes 5 years ago. I now have good distance vision but need reading glasses. The distance when reading or working on the computer is less than music stand distance so I have 2 pairs of reading glasses, one for close work and one for musical activities. I keep those in my music case.
Tony F.
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Author: Late_returner
Date: 2020-05-24 11:17
My recent experience may be of some help.
I had the surgery on my right eye in mid March, just before UK lockdown. The surgeon offered lens which favoured close vision, distant vision , or both. When i asked why anyone would not chose "both" he told me that pensioners often take a long time to adjust to this lens, a period of 6 months plus not uncommon, while the others were easier. This seemed a long while to have dodgy vision, although had i realised about lockdown curtailing everything i may have wanted to explore further. Although we discussed my playing , score reading etc, we settled on the distance lens as the most useful for my totality.
The op has been successful and i am pleased with the result. I was expecting my close vision to be less effective than it actually is - for example i am typing this on a small tablet keyboard without glasses about 8 inches away. ( but Im reviewing it with glasses on !) Its by no means " distance viewing only" . The only inconvenience so far is ( a) daylight is so much brighter (b) have only had a single follow up due to lockdown, so I am not sure whether the stern prohibition against bending down is still in force. I believe if we were not in lockdown preparations to do the left eye quite soon would be in hand.
I can play music with or without reading glasses, and can still use the vari focals that i had pre the op. In fact i do tend to wear the vari focals more than i strictly need, and i guess this is partly long habit and partly ( horror spoiler alert) cos a friend who was a airline pilot lost his air quality sight certificate when shards resulting from a poor car windsceen replacement job flew up from the heater blower. So i tend to value the shield properties of glasses when Im driving , pruning the roses etc.
So my experience has confirmed the distance option, but dumping the glasses was never that big a deal for me.
Good luck on Tuesday !
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2020-05-24 18:05
About 15 years ago I had cataract surgery and chose monovision. One eye for sheet music distance and one for driving. I don't do much super-close work so I opted for mid- and distant-lengths.
Works great for me!
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Author: Slowoldman
Date: 2020-05-25 19:02
I don't have cataracts, but I have had similar issues with "progressive" multifocal lenses in my glasses. (These are analogous to the multifocal cataract replacement lenses being discussed.) I found that the "sweet spot" for any given distance of vision was so narrow that I had to move my head too much to read a page of music. If I had a long ascending run, I couldn't see the whole thing from bottom to top clearly in one field of vision.
The solution for me was a dedicated pair of bifocal music glasses, with a distance lens for the conductor for the top third, and closer correction for music below. This would be like a distance correction cataract lens, paired with reading glasses for the music distance.
The drawback with the permanent "distance" lens post-cataract is that you wind up keeping multiple pairs of glasses around the house for different closer tasks!
Not a direct answer to the OP, but hopefully a helpful perspective. (No pun intended.)
Amateur musician, retired physician
Delaware Valley Wind Symphony, clarinet 1
Bucks County Symphony Orchestra, clarinet 2 (sub)
Post Edited (2020-05-25 19:06)
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Author: clarimad
Date: 2020-05-25 23:17
I had cataracts removed in both eyes. This was about 20 years ago but I wasn't given any choices about the type of lenses that would replace mine. All I was told was that the phacoemulsification process would be used (why I have recalled the name of the procedure I don't know!).
I'm an ex professional musician and have on occasion needed to wear over-the-counter reading glasses when playing.
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Author: Claudia Zornow
Date: 2020-05-27 04:17
My choice was the same as Katrina's: one eye set at intermediate focal length for computer screens and music stands, one eye set for distance. I use reading glasses for close-up reading if necessary. This has worked very well for me. I can even read a magazine without glasses while exercising on a treadmill, though the shutdown has kept me away from treadmills for a couple of months now.
Could you "test-drive" your choice using soft contact lenses before you commit to it via surgery? I used to wear monovision contact lenses before my cataract surgery, so I knew my choice worked for me.
Claudia
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