How to Choose an Intraocular Lens for Cataract Surgery?

✅ Advantages

• Simple yet reliable optical properties.
• Affordable price, also available in public institutions.

❌ Disadvantages:

• Without glasses, vision will only be good at one specific distance; by default, you will not need glasses for distance, but glasses will be necessary for intermediate (1–4 m), computer (70 cm), and near (30–40 cm) distances.

🔎 When Should You Choose This?

• If you work in a profession requiring distance vision (beyond 5 meters) and using different glasses for closer distances is not a problem.
• If you are unwilling or unable to make any compromise for glasses independence.

Traditional Multifocal (Trifocal) Lenses

Multifocal lenses have multiple focal points (typically three, which is why they are also called trifocal). Without glasses, they enable adequate vision at nearly all distances (distance, intermediate, and reading, from approximately 30 cm to far). However, due to their ring-shaped technical design, they optically convey a slightly lower-quality image, which requires greater willingness to compromise from the wearer.

✅ Advantages

• They provide adequate vision at multiple distances without glasses.
• You can read even the smallest print without glasses.

❌ Disadvantages

• Image quality will be somewhat reduced.
• Does not provide completely sharp images at intermediate distances.
• May require higher light intensity for near vision.
• Contrast sensitivity will be reduced.
• Reflections, light scattering, or halos may occur, especially during night driving.
• More expensive than monofocal lenses.

🔎 When Should You Choose This?

• If reading small print without glasses is particularly important.
• If you do not want to wear glasses at all and it does not bother you if the image is not the sharpest at computer distance.
• If it does not cause a problem that your vision is not pin-sharp or if color shades may not be completely accurate.
• If you are an easily adaptable, positive-minded person.
• If you are aware that there is currently no perfect intraocular lens that can provide a visual experience identical to your youthful vision, and you understand what light phenomena may occur with this lens.
• If you are aware that it cannot be ruled out that you may develop an eye condition during your lifetime for which we would currently not recommend implanting a multifocal lens. In such cases, your symptoms may be more bothersome or your vision more limited than if you had chosen a different lens.

Extended Depth-of-Focus Lenses (EDOF)

These are the newest lens types offering the widest possible focal range while optically providing image quality nearly identical to monofocal lenses. Extended depth of focus lenses provide good vision without glasses for distance, intermediate, and computer distances (from approximately 70 cm to far). At near distances (30–40 cm), they provide only moderately good vision without glasses; glasses will be needed for small print and reading books. This was one of the most popular implant types until 2026.

✅ Advantages

• Provides glasses independence in most life situations.
• Acceptable near vision without glasses (larger print).
• Excellent distance and intermediate vision, even at night.
• Offers better image quality compared to multifocal lenses.

❌ Disadvantages

• Near vision will not be perfect without glasses.
• In case of eye disease, mild light phenomena may rarely occur.
• More expensive than monofocal lenses.

🔎 When Should You Choose This?

• If you want to be glasses-independent in most situations and low-power reading glasses are not a problem.
• If it is important to you to see well at intermediate distances (0.7–4 m) without glasses.
• If you are aware that there is currently no perfect intraocular lens that can provide a visual experience identical to your youthful vision, but you want to wear glasses as rarely as possible with minimal compromise.

New-Generation Multifocal PRO Lenses ^New!

The latest breakthrough in cataract surgery is multifocal PRO technology, which most closely approximates the post-surgical visual experience to our eyes’ youthful, natural vision and adaptability. This type fundamentally reforms vision with multifocal lenses: unlike previous technologies, it does not use disruptive rings on the lens surface but provides sharp vision at all distances with a continuous, clear optical surface.

✅ Advantages:

• Seamless vision: No “jumps” between focal points; provides continuous and sharp images at all distances from distant points to smartphones (Continuous Full Range of Vision).
• Nighttime safety: Since there are no diffractive rings causing light diffraction, disturbing halos, reflections, and light scattering around light sources are eliminated, making evening driving as safe as in younger years.
• Outstanding contrast: Thanks to the unified light ray technology (ART), the lens utilizes 100% of light, so images remain vivid even in twilight or weaker indoor lighting, and do not require extra strong light for reading.
• Rapid adaptation: The brain perceives this image as much more natural, so the adaptation period (neuroadaptation) to the new visual experience is significantly shortened.

❌ Disadvantages:

• Professional limitations: The functioning of multifocal PRO lenses requires that all parts of the eye be intact in the central areas. In certain accompanying eye conditions, implantation is relatively contraindicated, as the implant would not function properly and could not provide full vision at closer distances.
• Price: Currently the most advanced premium category available, so costs may be higher than traditional types.

When Should You Choose This?

This is the most ideal choice for you if:

• You lead an active life and want to achieve the greatest possible glasses independence.
• You use digital devices extensively (computer, tablet, phone), where sharpness at intermediate and near distances is important.
• You enjoy reading and want to achieve this without compromise, even in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.
• You frequently drive in darkness or twilight and do not want to compromise on nighttime visual safety.
• You do not want glasses independence to come with pronounced light scattering symptoms.
• If you are aware that there is currently no perfect intraocular lens that can provide a visual experience completely identical to your youthful vision.

Toric Lenses Can Eliminate Cylindrical Glasses

One special form of refractive error is astigmatism, which we correct with cylindrical lenses in glasses. During cataract surgery, this refractive error is also corrected with such a cylindrical lens; this type is called a toric intraocular lens. It is important to know that if this refractive error is present, it will be present at all distances, so if we do not correct it—with glasses or with the intraocular lens—vision will not be good at any distance. Minimal cylindrical refractive error (typically 0.75 diopters) does not necessarily need to be corrected, and lenses are not available to correct smaller diopters than this.

Most premium implant manufacturers nowadays have the technology to produce toric versions of various types. Our range includes the complete spectrum, so we can implant monofocal toric, extended depth of focus toric, multifocal toric, and multifocal PRO toric lenses.

It is also worth knowing that if someone has cylindrical glasses, it does not mean they will need a toric lens, and conversely, if someone does not have cylindrical glasses, they may still need a toric lens implanted. This is because the eye’s total refractive power is provided jointly by the cornea and the natural lens; these can compensate for or amplify each other, but this situation changes with surgery.

During the implantation of toric lenses, special attention must be paid to setting the axis, which means it must be placed at an individually customized angle appropriate to the patient’s eye.

✅ Why Is This Important?

• Without it, vision will not be sharp; images will be blurred and may double.
• Residual post-surgical refractive error can be further reduced.

🔎 When Should You Choose This?

• If the personalized lens design determines that you would have residual cylindrical refractive error after surgery.
• If you want to avoid having to correct cylindrical refractive error with glasses at various distances after surgery.

How Similar Are Intraocular Lenses to Our Natural Lens?

Since their invention 75 years ago, intraocular lenses have undergone significant development and are under continuous improvement, but unfortunately to this day, none has succeeded in creating one equivalent to the natural lens created by nature. Therefore, if someone wants surgery only for independence from glasses, it is worth considering twice what they are sacrificing and in exchange for what. Make no mistake: current surgical techniques and available intraocular lenses represent an excellent solution for many people, but no intraocular lens can replicate the visual acuity and all other refractive characteristics of our youthful eyes.

There are several differences between the intraocular lens implanted during surgery and our youthful natural lens, the most important being that our natural lens is capable of accommodation. Through this, our natural lens can change its refractive power by changing its shape, thus ensuring sharp vision at all distances. Due to the shape differences between the human natural lens and the intraocular lens (the natural lens is plum-shaped, while the implanted one is disc-shaped), their optical characteristics also differ in certain respects.

These differences are smaller in the case of one focal point than in the case of multiple focal points. The image quality conveyed by multifocal implants will thus be somewhat reduced, but the patient may not necessarily notice this. The most advanced type of extended depth of focus lens provides image quality nearly identical to monofocal lenses and, like them, very rarely causes symptoms.

It is also worth knowing that there are significant differences among manufacturers in terms of quality and technological solutions.

In the vision simulator, you can check what your vision would be like if any of these symptoms occurred.

How Quickly Can You Adapt to the Implanted Intraocular Lens?

Our brain’s adaptive capacity significantly contributes to rapid adaptation to the changed visual experience after cataract or refractive lens exchange surgery. This process, called neuroadaptation, usually occurs successfully within a few days, but at most within a few weeks after surgery. It is important to accept the possibly somewhat different visual experience during this time and not create unnecessary obstacles in the adaptation process. Generally, the adaptation period is shortest for monofocal lenses and longest for traditional multifocal lenses, but this is not necessarily always the case. During the adaptation process, various light phenomena or blurred vision may occur more frequently, the presence and extent of which varies individually.

Our brain’s adaptation process can be negatively affected if we have other existing eye conditions, such as corneal scarring after refractive surgery, dry eye, eye floaters, or retinal disease. Unfortunately, there are cases when, even after a perfectly executed surgery and the most carefully selected intraocular lens, some visual symptoms persist after surgery, which we cannot always address, and acceptance remains the only option.

Why Are There So Many Types of Intraocular Lenses, and What Else Should I Know?

The different types aim to reduce glasses dependence. Manufacturers try to achieve this through various technological solutions. Two important things need to be considered in this regard:

1. 100% glasses independence after surgery cannot be guaranteed, despite tempting promises. It is probable, one can say there is a good chance it will not be needed, but it would be irresponsible to guarantee it with current technology.
   
   Pre-surgical calculations, the manufacturing process, and minimal positional changes of the intraocular lens after surgery also influence the final result, so with any type of intraocular lens, some refractive error may occur, which may even require glasses, even with multifocal or extended depth of focus lenses.
   
   The intraocular lens is implanted into living tissue, so this can also change after surgery (shrink, scar, shift slightly), which makes the pre-surgically calculated refractive powers incorrect, meaning some refractive error may still “remain.”
   
   Nevertheless, post-surgical refractive error is usually less than half a diopter, which does not require glasses correction, and in more than 95% of cases, the distance glasses power needed after surgery is also less than one.
   
2. Regarding vision, compared to a healthy young person, after cataract or refractive lens exchange surgery, we find ourselves in a compromise situation. The range of sharp vision (at which distances it is sharp) and the quality of vision will change (resolution, contrast, color fidelity, light scattering, brightness), although this may be partially imperceptible to us. The extent to which one or another characteristic is affected depends on the type of intraocular lens. Monofocal lenses modify light rays the least, and traditional multifocal lenses the most. Extended depth of focus and new-generation multifocal lenses provide light imaging nearly identical to monofocal lenses.
   
   Regarding the range of sharp vision, differences between lenses are always clearly visible; that is, with a monofocal lens set for distance, we will definitely not be able to read without glasses.
   
   However, differences in image quality are much more nuanced and may depend on several factors and any existing comorbidities. With traditional multifocal lenses, disturbing light phenomena and reduced contrast sensitivity are not uncommon. With extended depth of focus or new-generation multifocal PRO lenses, these differences are fortunately no longer typical.

How Do I Choose the Best Intraocular Lens for Me?

Finally, we have compiled some considerations worth going through so you can find the intraocular lens that best suits you.

⚡Financial considerations: there are significant differences in intraocular lens prices, but it is worth also considering the cost of glasses needed after surgery to get a complete picture of how much it costs to see well at various distances.

⚡Lifestyle and occupation: a taxi driver, an office worker, or a librarian will have different needs, so it is worth considering where you most often need good vision and where it is bothersome if you need glasses, which may even need to be changed. The situation is further nuanced by the individual’s lifestyle: hobbies, sports, and their importance relative to occupation differ for everyone. Instead of generally recommended lens selection rules, it is better to consider personal preferences. For example, for someone who drives a lot at night, we generally do not recommend traditional multifocal lenses, but among them are those who, due to their hobbies, consciously choose this and accept the occurring symptoms under given lighting conditions.

New-generation multifocal PRO implants currently offer the best possible solution during cataract surgery or refractive lens exchange.

⚡Post-surgical expectations (glasses independence and image quality): everyone is willing to compromise to different extents and in different aspects regarding vision. For some, complete glasses independence is the goal; others accept that they will occasionally need glasses but are unwilling to make significant compromises in vision quality. Complete visual freedom can be achieved with new-generation multifocal PRO lenses.

⚡Light sensitivity and eye condition: existing eye diseases may partially exclude the possibility of implanting multifocal, or more rarely even extended depth of focus lenses. Certain diseases may hinder the brain’s adaptation to the newly conveyed image, since they already conveyed a distorted image before surgery, which underwent further changes after surgery. After refractive surgery, in cases of corneal diseases, eye floaters, or retinal diseases, symptoms are more likely to occur with traditional multi-focal lenses than with monofocal ones. In cases of light sensitivity, light scattering symptoms may also be more bothersome.

New-generation multifocal PRO implants have brought significant progress in this area and represent a choice option even for patients where trifocal lenses were not an option.

⚡Making the decision: Do not decide based on how a family member, neighbor, or someone on the internet experienced their vision with one or another intraocular lens, but try to deduce for yourself which might be the best solution for you. After making your decision, tell your eye surgeon (and not another pre-examination doctor who may not even perform surgery), list your reasons for choosing that particular intraocular lens, and ask for their opinion as well. It may happen that the eye surgeon recommends a different intraocular lens due to your eye’s condition, but even then, the final decision must be made by you.

Do not overlook that new-generation multifocal PRO lenses have been available in Hungary since early 2026 and differ greatly from traditional ring-based multifocal lenses.

What Else Should I Consider Before Cataract Surgery? 5 Decisions Are Necessary .

Selecting the intraocular lens is an important moment in preparing for cataract surgery; however, other factors are equally decisive in ensuring your satisfaction after surgery. The cataract surgery technique (traditional or laser), the planned timing of surgery (how advanced the cataract is), the surgical location, and last but not least, selecting the operating surgeon are all important factors.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions About Intraocular Lenses