Clear Lens Replacement (CLR) is usually recommended to patients over 45 who wear bifocals, since it replaces the natural lens with an artificial one that cannot “accommodate” (shift focus between distant and nearby objects). Three options are available to correct for this loss:

• Bifocal or multifocal glasses or contact lenses.
• Multifocal lens implants – sort of “bifocals for the brain,” multifocal lenses have several built-in correction levels which the brain chooses from for the clearest view of any given object.
• Monovision – the eyes are adjusted so that one focuses on distant objects and the other on nearby objects.

Patients who do not qualify or do not want laser vision correction may consider traditional surgery, specifically, the new technology of refractive lens implants. Using methods similar to those in cataract surgery, refractive lenses are implanted in front of (phakic intraocular) or in place of (clear lens replacement, or CLR) the eye’s natural lens. Both procedures take approximately 30 minutes.