​Corneal Inlays And Its Types

When we are at the age of 40 will have difficulty in reading a book or a newspaper. The vision may become dull. This condition is known as presbyopia and is caused by the stiffening of eye lens. The most common way to ease this problem is by using eyeglass, contact lenses or a laser surgery.

Corneal inlay is an alternative for reading glasses and are implanted in the eye with a small surgical procedure. Corneal inlay is a small device of the size of an eraser tip. A small flap is created in the cornea with the help of a laser. The inlay is inserted into the flap and this process usually takes 15 minutes. As a result the close up vision gets corrected.

Refractive corneal inlay:

This is similar to multifocal contact lens or intraocular lens. They have different level of magnifying power and allow the eyes to focus up close and also far away. This type is currently under review.

Small aperture inlay:

This inlay is used to determine light entering the eye and the device is doughnut shaped with a pinhole in the centre. The pinhole allows light to enter the eye and to narrow the field of vision. It provides close range sight.

Things to know about inlays:

It is done in people who don't have refractive errors. If refractive error is there, LASIK is done and the refractive error is corrected first before doing the inlay. One must not have corneal diseases if he is about to perform corneal inlay. It is also not done for people having dry eyes, blepharitis and cataract. The cornea must be thick enough for surgery. Local anesthesia is given during the surgical procedure and some may also have side effects like difficulty in seeing at night, swelling, inflammation, glare etc.