Free yourself from glasses and contact lenses with lens replacement surgery in East Grinstead, Sussex and London

Discover how RLE enables you to break free from the blurry vision caused by short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism

Free yourself from glasses and contact lenses with lens replacement surgery in East Grinstead, Sussex and London

Discover how RLE enables you to break free from the blurry vision caused by short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism

Easily break free from glasses and contact lenses with the benefit of never needing cataract surgery

Our patients enjoy the amazing value of getting two procedures for the price of one

Say farewell to glasses for good

You have been wearing glasses for a long time, and you are tired of them. It is hard to see clearly without your glasses, especially when reading or driving at night. Imagine waking up on the day after surgery without having to wear glasses or contact lenses to read, drive or anything else you’d like to do with your eyes.

Turn back the clock on your eyes

Lens replacement surgery replaces the natural lens inside your eye with an artificial one that lets you see again without wearing any corrective lenses. Many patients say they feel rejuvenated – as if they’ve turned back the clock on their eyes. As a bonus, you’re relieved that you’ll never need cataract surgery – so it’s like two surgeries for the price of one.

Every day is better

One of your biggest daily hassles – putting specs on and off – is now gone. So today, you can have a shower without specs, read the morning news on your mobile, and drive to work. And all without putting on one pair of specs or dealing with contact lenses every day.

Discover the fountain of youth

After lens replacement surgery, you’d be one of the few among your peers who can read a menu in a dimly lit restaurant without putting on a pair of specs. They’ll wonder where you found the fountain of youth from which you’re drinking.

Restore your vision in 3 easy steps

Waiting for cataract surgery can be frustrating. We’ve made the process as quick and convenient as can be

Talk to us

The waitlists for cataract surgery across the country are long. To secure your spot on our surgery list and skip the queues, give our friendly team a call on 01342 656 003 or use our easy online calendar to book an assessment in your local area.

We’ll meet

We’ll perform all the necessary tests at your assessment to get a complete picture of your eyes and vision. We’ll also have an in-depth chat about your visual needs and goals so we can choose the best cataract surgery option to suit your lifestyle.

Vision restored!

After cataract surgery, patients across the country often tell us how much more youthful and engaged they feel once we’ve restored their vision. They can’t believe how much more detail and colour they are experiencing. Most mention that they wish they had done it sooner.

With lens replacement, patients can experience freedom from glasses and contact lenses

Quickly discover how the Baby Boomers’ favourite eye treatment can give you visual freedom in moments

Lens eye surgery, also known as refractive lens exchange (RLE) or lens replacement surgery, is a popular vision correction procedure. It is best suited to people over 50 years of age who want less dependence on glasses.

You may be a good candidate for lens eye surgery if:

  • You want spectacle-independent vision akin to what you enjoyed during your youth but are not a good candidate for laser vision correction
  • You have a glasses prescription that is higher than the accepted range for laser eye surgery
  • You are starting to experience changes in your vision due to the effects of ageing in the eyes
  • You do not have pre-existing problems with your eye health, such as glaucoma.
  • You want to avoid the eventual need for cataract surgery.

Lens eye surgery involves replacing your eye’s clear natural lens with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL). Doing this corrects your prescription to achieve sharper focus, reducing your need for reading glasses or bifocals.

Advantages

The benefit of lens eye surgery is that it can treat certain eye conditions such as presbyopia and extreme far-sightedness.

Other benefits of lens eye surgery include:

  • It treats or prevents cataracts, astigmatism, presbyopia, long-sightedness/far-sightedness, short-sightedness/nearsightedness, corneal problems and dry eyes.
  • It removes reliance on glasses and other corrective lenses and reduces the headaches and eye strain associated with their use.
  • It acts as an alternative for people who cannot have other corrective eye surgeries for whatever reason.
  • Lens eye surgery also generally improves eye health and reduces the likelihood that you’ll develop an eye infection. Of course, depending on the specific conditions of your eyes and how they affect you, you might receive only some of these benefits. But these are the most common benefits for lens eye surgery.

Disadvantages

  • People with short-sightedness or nearsightedness (myopia) are at a greater risk of retinal detachment during lens eye surgery. Therefore, they should only have the surgery if other surgeries are not viable.
  • It is rare but possible that you might have to undergo further post-lens eye surgery to gain the full benefits to your vision.
  • Lens eye surgery is more expensive than LASIK or other more common types of eye surgery.

Lens eye surgery is a more invasive surgery with a higher risk of complications than other vision correction procedures. But, the higher risks may be an acceptable trade-off if you have a severe refractive error and a strong desire to be less dependent on eyeglasses, contact lenses and/or reading glasses.

Lens eye surgery risks and complications include:

  • Retinal detachment, especially in extremely nearsighted people
  • Dislocated IOL
  • Increased eye pressure (ocular hypertension)
  • Infection or bleeding inside the eye
  • Droopy eyelid (ptosis)
  • Glare, halos and blurry vision from multifocal IOLs

Lens eye surgery alternatives include:

  • PRK
  • ICL
  • Reading vision correction treatment such as Presbyond / PresbyMAX and laser blended vision

Lens choices

There are 4 types of IOLs available to replace your natural lens, depending on your vision needs and the health of your eyes. They are:

  • Monofocal fixed-focus IOLs. Monofocal lenses provide clear vision at distance, intermediate or near ranges — but not all three at once.
  • Multifocal IOLs. A multifocal lens provides clear vision at multiple distances.
  • Toric IOLs are like multifocal IOLS, except they also have astigmatism correction in them. So we can use these for patients who have a lot of astigmatism and want to reduce it.
  • EDOF IOLs are the latest in lens technology for the treatment of Presbyopia. In contrast to multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) used in the treatment of presbyopia, EDOF lenses work by creating a single elongated focal point to enhance “range of vision” or “depth of focus”.

Lens eye surgery usually takes about 15 minutes and is performed on an outpatient basis. We treat each eye separately, usually about a week apart.

  • Step 1: Firstly, we create a tiny, self-sealing incision in the front of the eye, where the white of the eye meets the cornea.
  • Step 2: Then, we create a circular opening in the membrane that covers the natural lens (called the lens capsule).
  • Step 3: Next, we break the lens into small pieces and remove the pieces from the eye. This is referred to as lens extraction.
  • Step 4: Finally, we replace the lens with an artificial lens into the lens capsule. We pre-select the lens based on your visual needs and goals.

After lens eye surgery, you will have sharper focus and have significantly reduced if not eliminated your need for reading glasses or bifocals

Not all cataract surgery is the same

Knowledge is power. If you’re considering cataract surgery, this 5-minute quiz will help you see what you might be missing.

Do reading glasses and varifocal specs hold you back?

If so, you can have eye surgery to reduce your dependency on them for good

You don’t want to wear reading glasses

If you’re over 50 and want to see clearly at close and distant objects, lens eye surgery might be for you. We offer lens replacement with premium IOLs.

You’d like to lessen your dependency on glasses and get your cataracts removed

If you wish to take the opportunity of having your vision corrected when you have lifestyle cataract surgery, you should learn more about premium IOLs or toric lenses.

Thousands of happy patients gain freedom from cataracts, glasses and eye conditions

“I found the service I received from Dr. Elalfy very good, having experienced problems with surgery elsewhere, he sorted out those problems and reassured me to go on and complete my treatment. A lovely person with a very high skill set in optical surgery.”

Ms A.A.

“Fantastic impression and support from the first meeting. Excellent bedside manner with detailed explanations. Eye surgery expertly executed with 100% result wished for. Professional from start to finish. Absolutely no hesitation to recommend.”

Mrs L.W.

Thousands of happy patients instantly gain freedom from cataracts, glasses and eye conditions

“I found the service I received from Dr. Elalfy very good, having experienced problems with surgery elsewhere, he sorted out those problems and reassured me to go on and complete my treatment. A lovely person with a very high skill set in optical surgery.”

Ms A.A.

“Mohamed Elalfy achieves all that we want from our medical practitioners; interest in you as a patient, great care in analysing the problem and ensuring that one’s concerns, emotional and practical, are thoroughly considered and explained and a great outcome.”

Mr B.P.

We have replaced the images of real patients who provided these testimonials to protect their privacy.

Academic resources on Lens Eye Surgery

Learn more about this Lens Eye Surgery from authoritative sources

Refractive lens exchange, also called lens replacement surgery or clear lens extraction, may be a better option than LASIK, PRK or phakic IOL refractive surgery for people with presbyopia and high hyperopia (farsightedness).

Click here to read more.

If you have presbyopia or suffer from severe farsightedness (hyperopia), you may not be a good candidate for some of the more common corrective procedures like PRK, LASIK or phakic IOL surgery. Refractive lens exchange (RLE) to the rescue.

Click here to read more.

Patients with incipient cataract, significant refractive error, a desire for reduced dependence on spectacles and, perhaps, a need to lower their IOP may reasonably ask to have their crystalline lenses replaced earlier than was ever thought medically acceptable.

Welcome to elective cataract surgery.

Click here to read more.

Affiliations and memberships

We are aligned with the following professional bodies

Beat the lockdown wait lists and move forward with your life

We provide personalised treatment at a time and place that suits you

Mr Mohamed Elalfy

MBBCh, MSc, MD, DRCOphth, FRCS (Ed), FRCS (Glas), FRCOphth, FICO, FEBO
Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon

Seeking eye treatment for a worrying eye condition can be stressful. Waitlists everywhere are long due to the lockdowns, and leaving the house to attend appointments can be a real inconvenience.

To make your experience as easy and stress-free as possible, we provide assessments in your local area. We also offer online appointments both before and after your treatment, so you don’t have to travel far to get the personalised support you deserve.

LEARN MORE

Restore your vision and begin your life-changing journey towards improved eye health

Don’t let cloudy vision get in the way of your life. Instead, take the first step and discover which type of cataract surgery will give you the clear and crisp results you desire with a cataract assessment.