OK. Saying this as a human, not a doctor.
I'll need cataract surgery some day. Welcome to living in Florida. The small personal point I wanted to bring up here is about seeing halos at night.
I'm one of the first persons in the US to have gotten LASIK. I flew to Toronto to have it done about a year before it was FDA approved in the US. I'm 26 years out from it.
A consequence of the procedure was that I do see halos at night from lights. But the nice thing is that you brain tunes them out very effectively. At least mine does. If you asked me about driving at night and seeing a halo, I would think for a few seconds and say, yeah I guess I do. But I really haven't noticed them consciously in decades.
I live near a location of a practice that does a monumental number of cataract surgeries a year. I always wanted to visit their facility just to see it. My OR experience can't fathom doing that many cases in a day. They are very well thought of, and you really hear very, very few complaints from patients.
In surgery, volume does matter. And higher volume practices in many procedures have been consistently shown to produce better results.
My best friend is an OD. Would I ask his advice before having the surgery - absolutely. Would he have the final say. No, that's a decision that will be between the ophthalmologist and myself. As it should be. Doctors don't do residencies for fun. They do it to learn like mad. Which they do.
As far as single vs multiple focal lengths. I've worn progressive lenses for years (my ophthalmologist when he did my LASIK said I'd be good for about 10 years then need reading glasses. 10 years later, like clockwork, came the reading glasses.) Many people have trouble with progressives. I couldn't have worked without them with the multiple focal lengths I needed to focus on in the OR. But they're not for everyone, as I assume multi-focal length lenses aren't. In my case, they'll probably be a great thing.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.