North Shore Eye Care, a center of excellence in cataract surgery Tweet

At North Shore Eye Care we perform well over 1000 cataract procedures annually.  Our experienced surgeons have been performing cataract surgery over the the past 4 decades and have been active in all the new developments associated with this procedure during this time span.

Considerable changes have occurred with this procedure during a relatively short period.  Back in the early 1970’s most  cataract surgeons were not even using microscopes to perform this intricate procedure which required a hospital stay of several  days.  The incisions necessary to remove the cataract were quite large requiring many sutures for wound closure.  Tying these sutures induced large amounts of astigmatism which changed over time making it difficult to prescribe glasses before 6 weeks.  At this time almost no people had lenses implanted in their eyes.  Lens implants are necessary to replace the natural cataractous lens that is removed at the time of surgery.  Without them patients had to get used to a whole new way of seeing through very thick glasses that caused images to appear 20% larger.  Not only would images appear larger in the operated eye, but double vision would occur when looking from side to side.

All this has changed over time.  Modern surgery involves only tiny openings in the eye.  These openings are so small that they are self sealing so that sutures are no longer required.  Using a microscope we are able to emulsify the cataract using an ultrasonic tip that oscillates at approximately 30,000 cycles a second and implant a tiny lens in the exact space where the cataract had been removed.  These lenses offer not only excellent vision without distortion or magnification but in most cases afford patients excellent distance vision without the need for glasses.  For those patients who had large amounts of astigmatism all their lives we are able to implant lenses that can correct for this problem.  For those patients who wish to be able to see both far and near without reaching for glasses we can offer either multifocal or accommodative intraocular lenses that have very high patient satisfaction rates.  This surgery can now be performed as an outpatient in a state approved surgical facility that requires a stay of only 2 hours.

To learn more about this exciting procedure we invite all to one of our monthly cataract seminars or simply come in for an evaluation.  For your convenience we have offices in Smithtown, Riverhead, Deer Park, and Holtsville.  We are open 6 days a week with both  early and late evening hour availability.  As the team physicians for the New York Islanders and the Lasik providers for the New York Mets you can put your trust in North Shore Eye Care.