Sherae Honeycutt

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Original Post

It’s a step towards seeing clearly.

On Tuesday, doctors performed a first-of-its-kind eye procedure in the metro, and just a heads up there’s video of eye surgery in the clip above.

It’s a trifocal lens implant that allows patients to see close, middle and far distances without glasses or contacts, and FOX4 was in the operating room for a story you’ll only see here.

One metro woman is getting a new perspective on life — without the prescription. She’s the first in the region to receive a trifocal lens implant that will make it possible for her to never need contacts or glasses again.

The procedure was done by Dr. Timothy Lindquist with Durrie Vision at the Overland Park Surgery Center.

“This new lens is called a pan-optics,” Lindquist said. “It’s actually a trifocal lens. It not only gives you distance, it also gives you a near point and a point at the intermediate.”

Lindquist said the PanOptix lens by Alcon has been in clinical trials for the past few years, and just last week it received approval here in the United States by the Food & Drug Administration.

“It’s really neat to me to be able to have a chance to be able to improve people’s vision, and by practicing this type of medicine specifically you give people a better quality of life, allow them to perform better, sometimes even achieve things in a professional realm or personal realm that they weren’t able to before hand,” Lindquist said.

The doctor said the patient’s original lens that can fog and discolor is removed and a clear 20/20 vision lens is inserted for a drastic change in sight.

“Other than seeing a few sparkling lights, and halos as you work it’s easy to go through and her vision will start to recover even later today, so it’s really fun for her to start to see as soon as this evening,” Lindquist said.

Lindquist said after a day to a few weeks this patient will never see things the same — because she’ll finally see them perfectly.

“She wanted to get back doing everything she had been used to doing without readers or other glasses for the last decade and a half, but had lost that in the last few years,” Lindquist said. “Wanted to get back to that, and so the chance to restore that was really fun, get her back on her feet in doing those things without needing any help.”

If you’re wondering if you’re a candidate for this procedure, you can take a self-candidacy test on their website and get more information.