Winter 2010

Happy Holidays

The doctors and staff of Nashua Eye Associates, The Nashua Optical Company, the Contact Lens Center, and the Nashua Eye Surgery Center wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!

Cataract Developments

Nashua Eye cataract surgeons continue to stay on the forefront of important cataract surgery techniques and technology.  A cataract is a clouding of the lens inside the eye.  Progression of cataracts is a normal change that is unavoidable.  As such, getting cataracts can be compared to getting grey hair!  The treatment of cataracts is ultimately cataract surgery.  Patients often ask when is the best time to have surgery.  The answer to this question is variable and depends on the individual.  As cataracts get denser and blurry vision, the time to have surgery is when a patient’s vision isn’t meeting his or her needs.
Many of the recent advances in cataract surgery involve improvements in cataract implants.  An intra-ocular implant is routinely placed at the time of surgery and lasts for life.

The crystalens is what is called a “presbyotic” implant.  This exciting technology allows a range of distance and near vision without glasses, in much the same way the eye of a young person can change focus from far vision to near.  The crystalens was FDA approved in 2003, and several changes since its approval have improved its function.
About 25 percent of all patients have significant astigmatism.  Patients having cataract surgery who have astigmatism may benefit from a “toric” implant.  Toric implants correct astigmatism with the goal of clear vision without glasses or contact lenses.

By studying the optics of the young eye, researchers have learned more about what causes worsening vision performance with age.  One of the factors is an increase in so-called “higher order aberrations”, which are in part responsible for symptoms such as nighttime glare and haloes.  “Aspheric Matched” cataract implants reduce higher order aberrations by customizing the implant to the optics of an individual’s eye to maximize quality of vision after cataract surgery.  Nashua Eye surgeons use advanced diagnostic tools to measure higher order aberrations called aberrometers.  Nashua Eye is currently the only practice in northern New England to use the advanced “Atlas” aberrometer to help patients improve visual performance.  Patients from the northern Massachusets towns of Lowell, Tyngsboro, Chelmsford, Billerica, Dunstable, Groton, and Westford as well as New Hampshire towns Bedford, Merrimack, Amherst, and Manchester can benefit from this technology.

Nashua Eye Welcomes Dr. Johnson

Dr. Michael Johnson is an optometrist who joins the practice after a distinguished medical career in the United States Air Force, where he served at home and abroad for more than twenty five years.  He has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Legion of Merit Medal. As a retired Colonel, Dr. Johnson brings on abundance of experience and expertise to Nashua Eye.  He provides general eye care with a concentration on Low Vision.  Low Vision is an eye care sub-specialty that aims to maximize the functional vision of patients with profound vision loss.  The most common patients to benefit from a Low Vision consultation are patients with advanced macular degeneration, glaucoma, or a history of a brain stroke with vision involvement.  Nashua Eye is extremely proud to provide the services of Dr. Michael Johnson.