Tecnis toric IOL tint

[Highstream]

Had the first of two cataract surgeries yesterday, with a Tecnis toric IOL put in (second surgery is 10 days off). As vision has cleared today, what's surprised me is that many objects have taken on a cool white color tint with that eye, much like the quality of a typical flourescent ceiling light. OTOH, with my other eye, glasses off, the same objects appear darker, typically yellowish, e.g., like a soft white light bulb. Given that I have hazel eyes and have always been sensitive to light, for example to sun reflections off concrete and especially flourescent lighting - I like darker rooms and incandescent/LED lighting - I'm wondering how this is going to turn out, if it was the best choice. Do all the toric IOLs have more or less this color quality? I'm told my astigmatism is not serious but enough to recomend torics. Thanks,

[Highstream]

We're talking several optometrists across the country, most considered among the very best in their regions, during the past 20 years.

[Highstream]

Follow up: I showed your comment to my optometrist, who was appreciative. When I remarked that all these years not one eye doctor had ever mentioned the change in color and light caused by cataracts, he claimed, on the contrary, that he had shown me a video about it. In addition, he had just come back from a professional conference in Missoula and recounted how one presenter had talked about how patients often don't hear the information presented, no matter how many times it's presented. Well, I had my optometrist show his video and, sure enough, I had never seen it before. Moreover, its mention of color and light changes is made in passing, among a list of cataract effects, and nothing specific is described. In effect, the video functions more as a sales piece toward encouraging cataract surgery than as an educational device.

The field does the rest of us a real disservice by not educating in detail about the specific everyday effects of cataracts (and other conditions). There's no reason why people should go through decades, if not their entire lives, not knowing that the colors they perceive are not accurate due to an eye characteristic, condition or deformity.

[JohnHaganMD]

Don't judge "the field" by what your optometrist did or did not tell you.

[Highstream]

Thanks, Dr. Hagan. Helpful and reassuring - and an education about what I've been misperceiving all these years!

[JohnHaganMD]

best of luck

[JohnHaganMD]

This is common in all types of cataract surgery and with all types of IOLs. The typical cataract is yellow-brown and washes out the blue end of the light spectrum, it also reduces the total amount of light falling on the retina. Like a pair of sunglasses inside the eye. After the dirty brown cataract is replaced with a clear IOL many people often are bothered by the brightness for a while and things colors may look different than what they have had with the with catarct often more bluish.   Both of these problems get better over the weeks and months after surgery.
DO THIS: In a room with good lighting look at something you know is pure white like a white shirt/blouse or white piece of paper. Do it without your glasses. Compare one eye with the other. Almost always the eye with the IOL looks white and the cataract eye looks off white or kackie.  This should convince you the IOL is already giving true color.