Multifocal lenses in Vienna: your premium solution for a life without varifocals

“Multifocal lens” is the general umbrella term for all multi-power lenses. Trifocal lenses (e.g. enVista ENVY, PanOptix Pro, ODYSSEE) are a newer subtype: they have three fixed focal points (distance, computer, near). EDOF lenses (e.g. PureSee, LuxLife) have a smooth design without rings. They offer good vision at distance and at the computer with clearly fewer halos at night, but for the finest print you may need a light pair of reading glasses.

No. Your eyes are completely numbed locally with drops. During the operation (which takes only 10 to 15 minutes per eye) you feel only slight pressure, but no pain at all.

Absolutely not. The premium lens is placed in the capsular bag of your eye with micrometre precision. Because there are no pain nerves inside the eye, you feel the implant neither when blinking nor when rubbing.

The biocompatible high-performance acrylates do not decompose and do not cloud over. The multifocal lens lasts your entire life and never needs to be replaced.

No! Because your natural lens, which is prone to clouding, has been removed and replaced with a crystal-clear artificial lens, you can never develop a cataract again for the rest of your life.

Months or years after surgery, the body’s own tissue capsule in which the new lens sits can become slightly cloudy (posterior capsule opacification). Vision becomes milky. We “polish” this capsule painlessly in our practice with a YAG laser in 60 seconds. After that, vision is crystal clear for good.

Because diffractive multifocal lenses project several images (distance, near) onto the retina at the same time, your brain has to learn through neural plasticity to focus on the image currently needed and blank out the others. This fascinating neurological learning process usually takes 3 to 6 months.

Halos are fine circles of light that appear at night around bright light sources (e.g. car headlights) because the light is refracted at the grooves of the lens. Through neuroadaptation the brain learns to blank out these halos. For most patients they are no longer disturbing in everyday life after a few months.

Because the light is physically split into several focal points, not 100 % of the light energy reaches the retina for the near image (physical contrast loss of about 10 to 15 %). In a dimly lit restaurant a little more light (phone torch) therefore often helps to read the menu razor-sharp.

Visual recovery is rapid. As early as the first day after surgery most patients see excellently in the distance. The fine-tuning of near vision stabilises over the following weeks.

Most patients are fit for work again 2 to 3 days after the operation and can work at a screen. You should avoid heavy physical work for 1 week.

Light sport (jogging, cycling) is allowed after 3 to 4 days. Swimming (lakes, thermal baths) and sauna are strictly forbidden for 3 weeks to avoid serious bacterial infections inside the eye (endophthalmitis).

Absolutely not on the day of surgery. At the medical check-up the next day Dr. Derhartunian gives you clearance as soon as the legally required visual acuity has been reached.

No. We remove the natural lens with ultrasound (phacoemulsification) through an incision of 2.2 to 2.4 mm. According to the recommendations of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS), laser-assisted surgery (FLACS) is equivalent to the manual technique and does not measurably improve the visual acuity achieved. We therefore do not offer it, and there is no femtosecond laser surcharge.

Make-up particles and cream vapours endanger the absolute microbiological sterility in the operating theatre. Come with a freshly washed, “bare” face.

Please refrain completely from eye make-up for at least 1 week to prevent dangerous infections from bacteria in mascara.

Contact lenses deform the cornea and falsify the AI-supported biometry values we need to calculate your multifocal lens to the micrometre. Leave soft lenses out for 1 week and hard lenses for 4 weeks before the examination.

Both eyes are usually operated on in the same session, each as a separate procedure with its own instruments. On request, we operate on them on separate days.

Yes, absolutely. We order the multifocal lenses in a special “toric” version. These are precisely adapted to your axis and correct presbyopia and astigmatism at the same time.

The risk of a serious complication up to blindness is extremely low (well below 1 in 10,000). The greatest theoretical danger is an infection. We minimise this risk uncompromisingly through highly sterile surgical conditions (class 1 operating theatre) and strict hygiene protocols.

Short-sighted eyes are anatomically longer, the retina is under mechanical tension. If we remove the body’s own voluminous lens and insert a flat artificial lens, the vitreous body moves. The risk of a retinal tear or retinal detachment rises significantly. We do not expose you to this risk unnecessarily (especially before the age of 60).

The tear film is the very first refractive layer of the eye. If it is rough and broken, light scatters on the cornea, which massively worsens the halos of the multifocal lens and falsifies the AI measurement. We treat dry eyes in advance (ocular surface optimisation).

With mix and match, each eye receives a different type of lens. We often place an EDOF lens with few halos (e.g. PureSee) in the dominant eye, for distance, intermediate vision and night driving, and a trifocal lens in the non-dominant eye, for fine reading. Which trifocal lens fits is decided on the basis of your measurements. The brain combines both visual impressions. Whether mix and match is an option for you depends, among other things, on angle alpha and angle kappa and on how regular your cornea is. We measure both during the pre-operative examination.

Premium safety tolerates no haste. The optical AI measurement (MS-39 AXL), the pupil dynamics analysis (pupillometry), the endothelial cell count and the retinal check with dilated pupils (cycloplegia) take time. Added to this is the detailed consultation about the physical compromise of the lens.

At EyeLaser, lens surgery costs €3,500 per eye, regardless of which lens is implanted. A monofocal, monofocal-plus, toric, EDOF or multifocal lens costs exactly the same.

With us you do not pay for the lens model but for the entire clinical process: the diagnostics, the calculation and selection of the lens, the surgery and the aftercare. There is a deliberate reason for this: because the choice of lens does not change the price, it is made purely on medical grounds and never for commercial reasons. The femtosecond laser can be added as an option (€1,000).

No. The public insurers pay only for a simple standard lens in cases of medically pronounced cataract. Lens exchange with multifocal lenses for freedom from glasses is considered a private service. You can, however, deduct the costs in your Austrian tax return.

Yes, in cooperation with our reliable financing partners we offer flexible instalment models.

Yes. Because every body heals individually, in rare cases (about 2 to 5 %) a small residual error remains. This is where our EyeLaser quality promise applies: we can usually perfect the optical result without any problem through a fine laser touch-up on the cornea (e.g. with Trans-PRK).