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Corneal Inlay

Corneal inlays are used to correct age-related presbyopia – the eye’s loss of ability to focus on items up close. These tiny devices are surgically implanted into the outer layer of the eye, called the cornea, and cannot be seen or felt by the patient. Corneal inlays are just one option for reducing your dependence on reading glasses. Visit Dr. Kerry Solomon, an eye surgery specialist in Charleston, SC, to find a presbyopia solution that is right for you.

If you’d like to learn more about your options for presbyopia, request an appointment at one of our conveniently located centers in the Charleston area, or you can call us at (843) 881-3937 and one of our knowledgeable staff members will schedule your appointment.

What Is Presbyopia?

Sometime around the age of 40, our eyes begin to lose the ability to focus well on objects up close – a condition called presbyopia. This is the point in middle age when most of us will start using reading glasses or will begin wearing transitional lenses (bifocals). Presbyopia is believed to be caused by the lens and the muscles surrounding it losing elasticity with age. LASIK and PRK are unable to correct this condition.

How Can the Corneal Inlay Help?

The corneal inlay is implanted into the clear, outer layer of the eye called the cornea. It is placed in just one eye (typically the non-dominant eye) to avoid significant impact to distance vision. The two types of inlay currently approved by the FDA, KAMRA® and Raindrop®, work in different ways:

• The KAMRA inlay consists of an opaque outer ring with a very small opening that is centered over the pupil. This small aperture blocks out unfocused light, increasing the depth of focus and allowing you to see near objects more clearly, while maintaining good intermediate and distance vision.
• The Raindrop inlay is a tiny transparent disc, made of about 80% water, that is as small as the head of a pin. It reshapes center of the cornea at the front of the eye to improve your ability to focus up close and at an intermediate distance.

Other Options for Correcting Presbyopia

Dr. Kerry Solomon can correct presbyopia through a monovision procedure, which corrects one eye for near vision and the other for distance. In addition, many cataract and RLE patients have the option of choosing multifocal lenses that correct both near and distance vision.

Options for correcting presbyopia include:

• LASIK
• PRK
• Cataract Surgery
• Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE)