What will happen during my consultation appointment? During the consultation Miss Saw and her team will perform several diagnostic tests including:
- A careful glasses test (refraction), evaluation of ocular dominance, binocular fusion and eye muscle control.
- Detailed scans and measurements of the eye, using state-of-the-art equipment that will detect astigmatism in the cornea which requires a toric intraocular implant, and will be used to select the intraocular lens implant power most appropriate for your eye.
- Miss Saw will do a comprehensive examination of your eyes, including an eye pressure check, examination of the back of your eye (the retina) and evaluation of the health of the surface of your eyes.
Miss Saw will explain the results of the eye tests and her examination findings to you. She will then discuss the options for sight correction which are most appropriate for your eyes. Miss Saw will perform all the surgical procedures.
Do I need to prepare for the consultation?
- If you wear contact lenses, please remember to leave your contact lenses out before the consultation, for the following durations:
- Daily disposable soft lenses – at least 3 days
- Weekly/fortnightly/monthly soft lenses – at least 7 days
- Gas permeable lenses – at least 2 weeks
- Hard lenses – 4 weeks (or change to daily disposables, wear them for 3 weeks & leave them out for 1 week prior to the appointment)
Continuous contact lens wear can lead to temporary changes in the shape of your cornea, so it is important to leave contact lenses out prior to the consultation to ensure that the eye tests we perform are accurate. After the consultation, soft contact lenses can be used again, but they should be stopped 1-2 days prior to laser eye surgery. Hard contact lenses must be stopped 2 weeks before laser eye surgery. For RLE/cataract or ICL surgery, all types of lenses can be used until the day of the surgery.
- Bring a record of all your spectacle prescriptions over the last 2 years if possible. Laser eye surgery is normally postponed until the spectacle prescription is stable. Small variations in your prescription are normal, but if there has been a significant change over the last 2 years, we would normally wait 12 months before proceeding with surgery to ensure that there is no progressive change. Learn more about understanding your prescription
- You should allow a full two hours for your consultation.
- Your pupils will be dilated at the initial consultation. This will make your vision blurry and your eyes sensitive to bright light for a few hours. Bring sunglasses and avoid driving or biking to your appointment.
- Read the literature we send you and bring any questions you may have, to your consultation with Valerie.
How long does cataract surgery take? The cataract surgery itself takes 20 minutes or so. If you have femtosecond laser surgery it will take a little longer, 40 minutes or so. You will be at the day surgery facility for approximately 1-2 hours, to prepare the eye for surgery and to care for it after surgery including dispensing your postoperative eye drops.
How much time should I plan off work for cataract surgery? Although the visual recovery after cataract surgery is rapid: you can expect to see quite well within 1-2 days of surgery. Provided you are able to put drops in 4x per day, a return to work a few days after surgery will not damage the eye. Dusty environments are unlikely to damage the eye, but may be irritating, and should be avoided for 1 week after surgery. Patients who were dependent on distance glasses prior to surgery, will have difficulty obtaining balanced vision in spectacles in the week between having the first and second eye operated on. The alternatives for this stage are wearing a contact lens in the unoperated eye, or leaving one eye relatively blurred (simply removing one spectacle lens creates problems with unequal image size). Once the second eye is operated on, there is normally a swift return of balanced vision, and patients on a tight schedule can usually return to work 2 days following surgery provided that they are able to continue administering drops 4x per day.