What is TECNIS™?

TECNIS™ is the FIRST and ONLY IOL approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to improve your functional vision in low light situations – including night driving – and to provide a meaningful safety benefit for most older drivers.

Over the years, as our vision declines, objects in lower light conditions, such as a gray truck in the fog or a small child in a light-colored jacket at dusk, become much more difficult to see. Cataracts make this problem even worse.
Using innovative lens surface technology, the TECNIS™ intraocular lens (or IOL) gives you safer, sharper vision. This proven technology improves your functional vision in all light conditions. Whether climbing stairs, dining by candlelight or even driving at night, TECNIS™ is the FIRST and ONLY lens implant proven to increase functional vision and may help you drive more safely in low light situations.

How Does TECNIS™ Work?

In the eyes of a healthy 20-year-old, the cornea and crystalline lens are in balance. The cornea has what scientists call “positive spherical aberration,” while the crystalline lens has “negative spherical aberration.” This balance is what creates the sharper vision we enjoy in our youth. The TECNIS™ IOL is designed to help restore this balance so you can see better in varying light conditions.

Using an advanced optical measuring system known as WaveFront technology, optical scientists scanned the eyes of a sample of the population. Using these measurements, optical engineers created a lens implant with a modified prolate surface to simulate the performance of the eye’s natural lens. This technological breakthrough restores the balance of the eye to be more like that of a healthy younger person’s eye, improving functional vision in all light conditions.

TECNIS™ may help you see better and drive safer.

Traditional lens implants may restore vision to that of a healthy older person, but only TECNIS™ can restore the balance needed to give you quality of vision more like that of a healthy younger person. And in a simulated nighttime driving study, the TECNIS™ lens implant enabled drivers to see a pedestrian on the road 45 feet sooner than a traditional IOL. In other words, TECNIS™ helps you see objects sooner, so you can stop sooner.

The FDA found that there is likely to be a meaningful safety benefit to mature drivers with TECNIS™ lenses, and to the drivers and pedestrians with whom they share the road. The TECNIS™ lens improves functional vision, which in turn may improve patient safety for other life situations under low visibility conditions. No other lens implant has been proven to provide this benefit.

TECNIS™ is the FIRST and ONLY FDA-approved lens implant that helps improve nighttime driving.

In a clinical study, patients viewing rural roads at night with a TECNIS™ lens implant identified a pedestrian significantly sooner than with a traditional lens implant. This means you have a better chance of protecting yourself, those who ride with you and others on the road.

•  TECNIS™ provided a 45-foot advantage in identification distance at 55 mph compared to a traditional IOL
•  TECNIS™ provided an additional 1/2 second of reaction time at 55 mph compared to a traditional IOL. 
In perspective, the federally mandated third rear brake light showed only a 0.35 second improvement in reaction time for drivers, compared to the 0.5 second improvement of the TECNIS™ lens.

Safer, sharper vision with TECNIS™.

If sharper vision is important to you, you’re not alone. According to a recent ACNielsen BASES survey2 adults ages 55 to 75 said that restoring the eye’s function to that of a normal, healthy eye was the most important benefit a cataract treatment could provide, something traditional lens implants haven’t been proven to do.

Functional vision restored with TECNIS™ lens

While traditional lens implants replace the cloudy natural lens of your eye, they may not restore your functional vision. This means your eyes are still out of balance and images are not as sharp as they could be, leaving you with the functional vision of a healthy older adult, not the quality vision you had years ago. Only TECNIS™ has been shown to restore a quality of vision that’s more like that of a healthy 20- to 30-year-old adult.*
* Most patients will likely require glasses for reading and other up- close activities.

In perspective, the federally mandated third rear brake light showed only a 0.35 second improvement in reaction time for drivers, compared to the 0.5 second improvement of the TECNIS™‘aa lens.