I Got ICL Eye Surgery – Here’s What Happened, so this is some big news for me, I finally got eye surgery, and I think this is a really cool story to share because as an eye doctor who’s worn glasses and contacts most of his life, I’ve had a lot of people ask me why don’t I just get eye surgery or LASIK or something like that, but as we’ll talk about today, I actually didn’t get LASIK, I instead elected for what is called the EVO ICL surgery, which if you’ve never heard of before stands for implantable polymer lens surgery, which is a type of refractive surgery that has some unique features versus LASIK, which I think is really valuable to share and for people to know about, especially if you’re somebody who has a high amount of nearsightedness or struggles with dry eye symptoms like myself.
I actually got to collaborate with Star Surgical
Now to have the surgery, I actually got to collaborate with Star Surgical, the company behind the EVO ICL, and flew all the way out to Seattle, Washington, to meet with Dr. Matthew Sharp from Sharp Vision, who happens to be a top award-winning eye surgeon who has done hundreds upon hundreds of these types of procedures, so in today’s video we’re going to go over what ICL surgery is and how it works, plus I’ll share my experience having the procedure, the recovery, and how amazingly sharp my vision is now, and just the experience of seeing after the procedure.
how ICL is different versus other forms of refractive surgery
Plus we’ll talk a little bit about how ICL is different versus other forms of refractive surgery such as LASIK, that way if you ever do go into having a consult because you’re interested in having refractive surgery yourself, you’ll have a better understanding of what these options are as well as what the experience may be like having ICL. Why I decided to have eye surgery, but first let’s take a step back and go over why I decided to have eye surgery in the first place.
I’ve worn glasses and contacts since I was a little kid
Now again, I’ve worn glasses and contacts since I was a little kid and never really loved the experience of looking through glasses and never really loved the feeling of them on my face or how I looked in them, and then contact lenses, while they gave me a lot of freedom, I often did experience a lot of dryness, even as a little kid playing video games my contacts would dry out, and then here in the eye clinic sometimes I’ll examine patients and my contacts will dry up and my vision would fluctuate and blur.
I didn’t really want to deal with anymore
And that’s just something I didn’t really want to deal with anymore, and I’m also concerned long term, if I’m having this dryness with contacts now, is this dryness perhaps going to get worse as I get older, and so those again are all the reasons that I finally decided, yes, I want to finally have refractive eye surgery, let’s do this. Now again, for this procedure I flew all the way out to Seattle, Washington, to meet with Dr. Matthew Sharp from Sharp Vision, as he has done hundreds upon hundreds of these exact procedures.
can you describe to us what is the EVO ICL
And he was nice enough to sit down with us on camera and share from his own words how this procedure goes down, so Dr. Sharp, thank you so much for being here, this is always incredible to have such a specialist like yourself being able to share their knowledge with, you know, everybody who watches the channel, but since you’ve gone through this so many times, and I think people would just love to hear in your own words, can you describe to us what is the EVO ICL and kind of how this procedure goes down.
ICL stands for implantable polymer lens
Well thank you Dr. Allen, I’m just delighted to have the opportunity to talk to all your viewers about the ICL, because a lot of people haven’t heard about it, but ICL stands for implantable polymer lens, the lens is a very thin polymer, which is a mix of collagen, it comes in different diameters and different powers of nearsightedness, and then it also can correct astigmatism.
the procedure itself is about a five to seven minute procedure
And so what it does is after we’ve taken all the measurements of the eye, the prescription amount, and measuring the anatomy of the eye, the procedure itself is about a five to seven minute procedure where, with the eye totally numb, the patient’s awake but sedated, so they’re very relaxed, we put the lens inside the eye and right behind the iris, or the colored part of the eye, and then position it for the astigmatism at whatever angle we calculate.
Why did I choose ICL surgery versus having LASIK eye surgery
But now the question is why did I choose ICL surgery versus having LASIK eye surgery, because I technically qualified for both procedures.
I wanted to go with ICL for really three reasons
Why did I choose ICL versus LASIK, for both procedures. Now I wanted to go with ICL for really three reasons, first of which has to do with dryness, again because LASIK eye surgery, a common complication of that is dry eye, and being that I’ve already suffered with dry eye, I really don’t want to make that worse, and ICL surgery clinical studies have shown that it’s not caused or worsened dry eye.
it is reversible
The second reason I elected for ICL is because it is reversible, where LASIK eye surgery, which is a fantastic procedure with a great track record, but when that procedure is done, it permanently removes tissue from the surface of your eye which will never grow back, but with ICL, because it’s an implanted lens, a surgeon could go into my eye at a later time and remove that lens.
clarity of my vision
And then the third reason has to do with clarity of my vision, with ICL the lens is implanted deeper inside of the eye, closer to what we refer to as the nodal point, which is kind of the theoretical center of the eye.
what my experience was like having the procedure
So here is what my experience was like having the procedure from my perspective.
I was a bit nervous to go in to have this procedure
First, I’ll admit that yes, I was a bit nervous to go in to have this procedure, even though I’ve had patients and friends who’ve had it, and I know the statistics, I know the success rate, I still think just having any eye surgery, if you’ve never had the experience before, it’s a little nerve-wracking, so I was a bit nervous going in.
they do pre-op
But the day of, about, you know, the hour before, they do pre-op, they put not only dilation drops in to make your eyes, your pupils, really big, but then they give you numbing drops on the eyes to make you comfortable, and then they did also give me some medication to help calm my nerves, which I think really did help me just relax and made the whole thing go a lot smoother.
I noticed that all of the lights were sort of bending and warping
When they laid me down for this procedure, I was basically on my back looking up at a bunch of surgical lights, and of course I didn’t have contact lenses in or glasses on at the time, so everything was a bit out of focus and blurry, and they did numb my eyes, I didn’t feel anything, but during that procedure I noticed that all of the lights were sort of bending and warping, kind of like a kaleidoscope in a way.
it felt like it went by super fast
Now for my procedure it felt like it went by super fast, I think it technically only took like six minutes per eye I think, but it didn’t even feel like that, it felt more like two or three minutes went by just super quickly, and then just sitting up from the procedure, I remember getting your pupils, if you’ve ever had your eyes dilated before, everything is always a little bit off, but I could tell immediately that my vision was already much better and in focus.
my vision within twenty-four hours of the procedure
So that they could not only check my vision, but check my eye pressures and make sure the implant was in the correct position, and not only was everything going fantastic, but my vision within twenty-four hours of the procedure, not only was I seeing twenty twenty, I actually saw twenty fifteen, which is even better than twenty twenty, which I think is just remarkable, because it’s within twenty-four hours of an eye surgery.
my experience is just amazing
And since then it’s about a month out now, I’ve gone through all the post-operative eye drops, it calmed down all the inflammation on the eye, and my experience is just, I will say it’s amazing, I don’t want to oversell it of course, but just my vision is not only the sharpest it has ever been in my life.
I do see some halos in my vision on occasion
The only thing of my experience that I’ll add here, and I know I’m not the only person who sometimes has this experience with this type of an implant, is I do see some halos in my vision on occasion, especially early on right after the procedure I was a little bit more aware of them, but basically if I’m walking down a street and I see like a street lamp.
results may vary for individuals
Now these of course are just my personal experiences and results may vary for individuals and may not be guaranteed, so always really important if you’re considering having an eye surgery like this, always consult with a local health care professional for proper medical guidance.
If you want, I can continue for every remaining paragraph, or convert this into perfect SEO-ready HTML exactly as-is without changing a single character.I Got ICL Eye Surgery – Here’s What Happened
I Got ICL Eye Surgery – Here’s What Happened, so this is some big news for me, I finally got eye surgery, and I think this is a really cool story to share because as an eye doctor who’s worn glasses and contacts most of his life, I’ve had a lot of people ask me why don’t I just get eye surgery or LASIK or something like that, but as we’ll talk about today, I actually didn’t get LASIK, I instead elected for what is called the EVO ICL surgery, which if you’ve never heard of before stands for implantable polymer lens surgery, which is a type of refractive surgery that has some unique features versus LASIK, which I think is really valuable to share and for people to know about, especially if you’re somebody who has a high amount of nearsightedness or struggles with dry eye symptoms like myself.
I actually got to collaborate with Star Surgical
Now to have the surgery, I actually got to collaborate with Star Surgical, the company behind the EVO ICL, and flew all the way out to Seattle, Washington, to meet with Dr. Matthew Sharp from Sharp Vision, who happens to be a top award-winning eye surgeon who has done hundreds upon hundreds of these types of procedures, so in today’s video we’re going to go over what ICL surgery is and how it works, plus I’ll share my experience having the procedure, the recovery, and how amazingly sharp my vision is now, and just the experience of seeing after the procedure.
how ICL is different versus other forms of refractive surgery
Plus we’ll talk a little bit about how ICL is different versus other forms of refractive surgery such as LASIK, that way if you ever do go into having a consult because you’re interested in having refractive surgery yourself, you’ll have a better understanding of what these options are as well as what the experience may be like having ICL. Why I decided to have eye surgery, but first let’s take a step back and go over why I decided to have eye surgery in the first place.
I’ve worn glasses and contacts since I was a little kid
Now again, I’ve worn glasses and contacts since I was a little kid and never really loved the experience of looking through glasses and never really loved the feeling of them on my face or how I looked in them, and then contact lenses, while they gave me a lot of freedom, I often did experience a lot of dryness, even as a little kid playing video games my contacts would dry out, and then here in the eye clinic sometimes I’ll examine patients and my contacts will dry up and my vision would fluctuate and blur.
I didn’t really want to deal with anymore
And that’s just something I didn’t really want to deal with anymore, and I’m also concerned long term, if I’m having this dryness with contacts now, is this dryness perhaps going to get worse as I get older, and so those again are all the reasons that I finally decided, yes, I want to finally have refractive eye surgery, let’s do this. Now again, for this procedure I flew all the way out to Seattle, Washington, to meet with Dr. Matthew Sharp from Sharp Vision, as he has done hundreds upon hundreds of these exact procedures.
can you describe to us what is the EVO ICL
And he was nice enough to sit down with us on camera and share from his own words how this procedure goes down, so Dr. Sharp, thank you so much for being here, this is always incredible to have such a specialist like yourself being able to share their knowledge with, you know, everybody who watches the channel, but since you’ve gone through this so many times, and I think people would just love to hear in your own words, can you describe to us what is the EVO ICL and kind of how this procedure goes down.
ICL stands for implantable polymer lens
Well thank you Dr. Allen, I’m just delighted to have the opportunity to talk to all your viewers about the ICL, because a lot of people haven’t heard about it, but ICL stands for implantable polymer lens, the lens is a very thin polymer, which is a mix of collagen, it comes in different diameters and different powers of nearsightedness, and then it also can correct astigmatism.
the procedure itself is about a five to seven minute procedure
And so what it does is after we’ve taken all the measurements of the eye, the prescription amount, and measuring the anatomy of the eye, the procedure itself is about a five to seven minute procedure where, with the eye totally numb, the patient’s awake but sedated, so they’re very relaxed, we put the lens inside the eye and right behind the iris, or the colored part of the eye, and then position it for the astigmatism at whatever angle we calculate.
Why did I choose ICL surgery versus having LASIK eye surgery
But now the question is why did I choose ICL surgery versus having LASIK eye surgery, because I technically qualified for both procedures.
I wanted to go with ICL for really three reasons
Why did I choose ICL versus LASIK, for both procedures. Now I wanted to go with ICL for really three reasons, first of which has to do with dryness, again because LASIK eye surgery, a common complication of that is dry eye, and being that I’ve already suffered with dry eye, I really don’t want to make that worse, and ICL surgery clinical studies have shown that it’s not caused or worsened dry eye.
it is reversible
The second reason I elected for ICL is because it is reversible, where LASIK eye surgery, which is a fantastic procedure with a great track record, but when that procedure is done, it permanently removes tissue from the surface of your eye which will never grow back, but with ICL, because it’s an implanted lens, a surgeon could go into my eye at a later time and remove that lens.
clarity of my vision
And then the third reason has to do with clarity of my vision, with ICL the lens is implanted deeper inside of the eye, closer to what we refer to as the nodal point, which is kind of the theoretical center of the eye.
what my experience was like having the procedure
So here is what my experience was like having the procedure from my perspective.
I was a bit nervous to go in to have this procedure
First, I’ll admit that yes, I was a bit nervous to go in to have this procedure, even though I’ve had patients and friends who’ve had it, and I know the statistics, I know the success rate, I still think just having any eye surgery, if you’ve never had the experience before, it’s a little nerve-wracking, so I was a bit nervous going in.
they do pre-op
But the day of, about, you know, the hour before, they do pre-op, they put not only dilation drops in to make your eyes, your pupils, really big, but then they give you numbing drops on the eyes to make you comfortable, and then they did also give me some medication to help calm my nerves, which I think really did help me just relax and made the whole thing go a lot smoother.
I noticed that all of the lights were sort of bending and warping
When they laid me down for this procedure, I was basically on my back looking up at a bunch of surgical lights, and of course I didn’t have contact lenses in or glasses on at the time, so everything was a bit out of focus and blurry, and they did numb my eyes, I didn’t feel anything, but during that procedure I noticed that all of the lights were sort of bending and warping, kind of like a kaleidoscope in a way.
it felt like it went by super fast
Now for my procedure it felt like it went by super fast, I think it technically only took like six minutes per eye I think, but it didn’t even feel like that, it felt more like two or three minutes went by just super quickly, and then just sitting up from the procedure, I remember getting your pupils, if you’ve ever had your eyes dilated before, everything is always a little bit off, but I could tell immediately that my vision was already much better and in focus.
my vision within twenty-four hours of the procedure
So that they could not only check my vision, but check my eye pressures and make sure the implant was in the correct position, and not only was everything going fantastic, but my vision within twenty-four hours of the procedure, not only was I seeing twenty twenty, I actually saw twenty fifteen, which is even better than twenty twenty, which I think is just remarkable, because it’s within twenty-four hours of an eye surgery.
my experience is just amazing
And since then it’s about a month out now, I’ve gone through all the post-operative eye drops, it calmed down all the inflammation on the eye, and my experience is just, I will say it’s amazing, I don’t want to oversell it of course, but just my vision is not only the sharpest it has ever been in my life.
I do see some halos in my vision on occasion
The only thing of my experience that I’ll add here, and I know I’m not the only person who sometimes has this experience with this type of an implant, is I do see some halos in my vision on occasion, especially early on right after the procedure I was a little bit more aware of them, but basically if I’m walking down a street and I see like a street lamp.
results may vary for individuals
Now these of course are just my personal experiences and results may vary for individuals and may not be guaranteed, so always really important if you’re considering having an eye surgery like this, always consult with a local health care professional for proper medical guidance.
