JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Improving your vision could be a life-changing experience. If you’re on the First Coast, you’re in luck.
Doctors are using a newly FDA approved technology to get you out of glasses and contacts. It's called EVO Visian ICL.
It's been implanted in millions of people around the world, but it is new to the US.
So leave the glasses behind. Forget putting in contact lenses. Doctors are putting in a more permanent solution inside their patients’ eyes.
“Since I was a kid I was wearing glasses, in elementary school started contacts probably 5th grade or something around then so probably as long as I can remember," said Alex Bernstein. He chatted with me from Tallahassee where he recently graduated.
One thing you’ll notice about him in our interview, he is not wearing glasses.
“Day of the surgery, I was able to see better already. Haven’t had to use glasses or contacts or anything like that since," Bernstein said. "I’ve been able do all the activities I’d like to do without having to worry about that so I’ve been really happy with it.”
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He has contact lenses in his eyes permanently. Well they can be removed if need be.
Dr. Amit Chokshi with Florida Eye Specialists is one of the few in the area who are certified to do this procedure which he says gives their patients who don’t qualify for Lasik another option. He did Bernstein's surgery.
“Each eye takes maybe 5 to 7 minutes and by the next day, people that have been nearsighted for 25, 30, 40 years really can see fantastic even a couple hours after surgery," Chokshi said.
He says the surgery doesn't alter your cornea. It just adds a lens.
He calls it a life-changing event to one day be able to see clearly like you haven’t since you were a kid.
"(People) get nearsightedness at a very early age. I had nearsightedness, very high nearsightedness when I was in elementary school," Chokshi said. "A lot of my patients have the same kind of affect so they don’t even remember when they were able to see better. With something like the EVO lens, I see them a couple hours later and they’ve already had 95% of their vision corrected.”
An added benefit is lenses provide UV protection.
Find our more about the lenses here.