Belfast Director, Pamela Dowds, has a keen eye for the small print, but when her near vision started to fail and her need for reading glasses took over shedecided to take decisive action and renew her eyes. Just as a troublesome knee or hip can now be replaced, she was delighted to find that she could have the lens of her eyes renewed.

Pamela a director of Minprint needs excellent vision, not just for the facts and figures of running a business but also for checking the fine detail of the company’s printing business.  Golf was a challenge too, with good vision needed for seeing the ball land on the greens and filling out the score card.

“My eyesight had become really inconvenient, and I was always hunting for my glasses for the computer, for checking the price tags when shopping of whatever else I did. Reading had become the greatest annoyance as I needed my glasses for everything,” she said.

Pamela was referred by her optician to specialist, Professor Jonathan Moore, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Cathedral Eye Clinic, Belfast, to discussthe latest eye treatments.

Professor Moore revealed that as well as the natural aging of the eye that leads to the need for reading glasses, Pamela’s distance vision was not as good as it should be, particularly for driving.

She was delighted to find that the need for glasses could be removed by the most advanced eye surgery, returning her vision to that of a 25 year old.

In a short, painless, procedure Professor Moore removed the aged natural lens of the eye and inserted an advanced multifocal intraocular lens, called a ReZoom, to restore focus and quality of vision. Some days later, after a further consultation to assess Pamela’s renewed sight in her right eye, another lenscalled a Tecnis multifocal was selected for Pamela’s left eye to ensure excellent near vision.

Professor Moore, a leader in this field of eye surgery, believes this option solves many issues for people who want to be free of their glasses and contact lenses. The procedure enables the replacement lens to be customised to the person’s individual visual needs. This staged technique of using two slightly different multifocal lens designs, provides the patient with seamless vision at all distances with many patients not needing glasses again.

Pamela is delighted with the results – “I didn’t feel a thing – it was so quick and painless.  I had perfect vision straight away and I would make the choice again, ten times over!

“I spend a lot of time working on the computer and I now find that I don’t get theheadaches as I used to.  It has made everything so much easier – not just for reading, but also for driving with improved vision for reading number plates and signs. You really notice the difference when you get your vision back….I didn’t realise how much it had deteriorated.”

The other positive news for Pamela is now that her aging natural lenses have been replaced she will not develop cataracts and so should never need eye surgery again.