Cataracts
They may be a normal part of the aging process, but cataracts can cloud your vision during some of the best years of your life.Cataract Surgery
At Pullman Family Eye Care, we’ll work with you to find the best surgical options to treat your cataracts and restore clarity to your vision.
For most people, cataracts are only a matter of time. Typically, cataracts begin to show up as a gradual, progressive clouding of your vision. Frequently, this clouding is combined with a noticeable glare or halo that appears around lights. The initial symptoms of cataracts appear gradually, but over time they progress; moving from minor inconvenience to serious visual challenge, and if left untreated, cataracts will lead to blindness.
But here’s the good news: cataract surgery is regarded as one of the safest, most common and most effective surgeries in all of medicine. Every year, more than 3-million cataract surgeries are performed in the United States. Most take just 20-minutes or less. And today, you have options for advanced cataract lenses that not just restore, but improve your vision.
Healthy Vision
Vision Clouded By Cataracts
What can you do if you have cataracts?
Every person is unique, every eye is unique, and every lifestyle is unique.
At Pullman and Moscow Family Eye Care, we treat all our patients as individuals. That means working with you to find the cataract treatment option that’s designed to give you the vision, clarity, freedom and flexibility you want.
Astigmatism Correcting Lenses
- Correct Astigmatism During Catract Surgery
- Reduce Your Need for Glasses & Contacts
- Can be Combined with Multi-Focal Lenses
If you wear glasses or contacts to correct for astigmatism, you may want to consider lenses that correct for astigmatism during cataract surgery. If that sounds like you, you’re not alone.
Nearly 1/3 of candidates for cataract surgery have 1 diopter or more of astigmatism. That’s enough to cause noticeable blurry vision.
These lenses are typically called toric IOLs. They replace your body’s natural lens that’s been clouded by cataracts and work to correct your astigmatism.
If you’re someone who’s worn glasses or contacts for most of your life to correct for astigmatism, toric IOLs may be able to reduce your need for corrective eyewear after cataract surgery.
Astigmatism Correcting Multi-Focal Lenses
- Clear Vision Up Close, and Far Away
- Reduce Your Need for Glasses & Contacts
In years past, people had to choose: a lens that corrected their astigmatism and provided clear vision at a single distance, or a multi-focal lens that didn’t correct for astigmatism.
Today, we have new options.
A new lens technology, named the Symfony IOL, was recently cleared by the FDA. It brings together both multi-focal and astigmatism correction in a single lens.
Dr. Hoehn was one of the first surgeons in our area to implant a Symfony IOL, and it’s an option we’re excited to be able to bring to our patients.
Standard cataract lenses offer clear vision at a single distance. Most patients choose for clear vision at a middle-distance, and then use reading glasses for up-close vision. Multi-focal cataract lenses are designed to clear vision up close, and at a distance, thereby reducing your need for glasses or contacts.
If your goal is to live a life without glasses or contacts, you should discuss multi-focal cataract lenses with your eye surgeon.
Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery
- A Bladeless Procedure
- The Precision of a Robotic Laser
During standard cataract surgery, the surgeon makes a microincision in your eye, and uses a handheld instrument to break up your clouded lens for removal.
With laser-assisted cataract surgery, a robotically-controlled laser makes the incision in your eye, and then breaks up your cataract-clouded lens with a laser, before it’s removed by the surgeon.
If you’re interested in laser-assisted cataract surgery, talk with your surgeon about the benefits of the procedure to see if it’s right for you.
Custom vs Standard Cataract Surgery
Most insurances, including Medacaid, typically cover “standard” cataract surgery. This is cataract surgery that uses a mono-focal lens, designed to provide clear distance at a single distance, without correcting for astigmatism. Standard cataract surgery can be a good option for patients who don’t mind wearing glasses or contacts after surgery to either correct for their existing astigmatism, or for up-close tasks like reading, or using a cellphone.
Custom options, like multi-focal or astigmatism-correcting lenses generally are not covered by commercial insurance plans or Medicaid, and may require an additional investment. For patients who would like to reduce their need to wear glasses or contacts after surgery, these custom options can be a smart investment.
At Pullman Family Eye Care, you’ll work closely with our cataract surgeon, Dr. Hoehn to pick the option that’s right for your lifestyle.
Cataract Surgery at Pullman Family Eye Care
- Local Treatment, from an Experienced Cataract Surgeon
- Care from a Single, Dedicated Team
- An Experience Personalized to Your Needs
- A Fast, Same-Day Outpatient Surgery
- Advanced UVA/UVB Blocking Replacement Lenses
- Personalized, Direct Follow-up Care From Your Cataract Surgeon
We’ve worked to make sure that even our standard cataract surgery options are far from “basic.”
No matter what options you choose, you’ll work directly with Dr. Hoehn, our cataract surgeon, and our team of surgical planners and coordinators.
Your same-day surgery will be performed locally, at either the Palouse Surgery Center in Moscow, or Pullman Regional Hospital’s outpatient surgical facility. We don’t hand-off our cataract patients from one provider to another. You’ll be working with your cataract surgeon from your initial assessment, through surgery and post-surgical checkups.
Meet Our Cataract Surgeon
Alyssa Hoehn, M.D.
An experienced cataract surgeon, Dr. Alyssa Hoehn performs hundreds of procedures annually in Pullman, Washington and Moscow, Idaho. She trained under leading surgeons during her residency at Loma Linda University, and today maintains a five-star rating with the CMS.gov’s physician comparison initiative for patient satisfaction with cataract surgery.
Dr. Hoehn works directly with all our cataract surgery patients at Pullman Family Eye Care, to provide the best surgical experience possible.