Glasses – Why do I need glasses after cataract surgery?

When you have cataract surgery, your eye’s natural lens is replaced with an artificial lens (also referred to as an intraocular lens/IOL). If your cataract surgery is carried out on the NHS, then you’ll only have the option of a monofocal lens, which can correct long or short-sightedness, but not both. Your lens can be set to focus on objects that are close up, or objects that are in the distance, but it won’t be able to switch between the two. This means, if you had issues with both long and short-sightedness and were wearing glasses before cataract surgery, it’s likely that you’ll still need them afterwards, but you’ll usually need to get a new prescription to account for the improvement in your vision after cataract surgery.  

If, however, you’re having your cataract surgery done privately, then you’ll be able to choose from a wider range of lenses, including monofocal, varifocal and toric lenses. Toric lenses are designed to correct astigmatism and can be either monofocal or varifocal.