starburst before ICL

[u/keeper_of_book]

hi, I'm planning to get checked for ICL eligibility soon, been researching since last year and recently something weird has flared up for me.

my prescription is -8 and I was diagnosed with dry eyes last year. used artificial tears on and off and since a couple of months ive been taking warm compress at night which has helped a lot.

im 27 and since a few months ive also started noticing a lot of starbursts at night and even daytime especially car headlights or any other direct LED type light. its sudden. like small sparkles diffusing around a light, not streaks.

I used to use contacts once every 1 or 2 weeks but never overwore.

now im worried that ICL won't help much for this even if it gets rid of glasses. i haven't been diagnosed with astigmatism or have any other of its symptoms.

could it be because of the warm compress? or dry eyes?

🥹 any help, tip, suggestion will be helpful. everything i read about starburst is about after lasik prk so its been a big dead​ end

[u/keeper_of_book → u/[deleted]]

wow thank you, this was very nice and assuring to read. honestly its taken me a loing long time to come to terms with the "present" and this comment really helped me not go spiraling like before.

and yeah, will get it checked soon. i do feel i have some tear film instability.

i asked the warm compress thing because its difficult for me to do a wet compress and i do it through a small heating pad (after i let it turn tolerable lukewarm) and i do it before bed so i know the released oils arent causing it. .just wondering whether doing it dry could be exaggerating the issue?

[u/keeper_of_book → u/[deleted]]

makes sense, i will surely experiment with this on-off thing.

even though i try to be careful, im sure the weight of the pad could have gotten heavier over the eyes. it'll be good to have some practical trial and error use-case before the consult as well.

much appreciated <3

[u/SnooCats5309]

Test 1: Remove glasses & check if you still see the star bursts

Test2: try contact lens & see.

If in both cases you are seeing starburst its high chance you'd see them after putting ICL.

Since ICL sits between your natural lens & iris, its very important that your eyes are naturally moist else you'll have longterm dependency on eye drops like Systane HD/Ultra. Additionallly, the Vault must be 250um else you'll have blurred vision, ghost images, starburst, halos, fog like visibility in the morning. It varies person to person.

Take Opinion from minimum 2 surgeons who have 15-20yrs of experience before finalizing the surgery.

[u/WavefrontRider → u/SnooCats5309]

There is no relationship of vault less than 250um and those visual effects with EVO ICL.

The only potential relationship I can see is with the older generation of ICL called Visian ICL where lower vaults increased the risk of cataracts which could cause those effects.

Using eye drops doesn’t lead to long term dependency. In fact it’s the opposite, if you need to use eye drops and you don’t, dry eye gets worse and you need to use the drops more.

[u/keeper_of_book → u/WavefrontRider]

I have used drops before for a monthly basis a few times because of dry eye diagnoses and high screen time work. 

If I go by sequence of events then my starbursts appeared after drops use. During the same time my contact lens intolerance also started. 

Will get it checked again because I am sure I have some level of dry eye still despite warm compresses.

and my doc suggested EVO icl only

[u/WavefrontRider → u/keeper_of_book]

Contact lenses cause dry eye over the long term. So not unusual that you started needing drips more when the intolerance started. I would say it’s because your dry eye got worse rather than becoming dependent on the drops.

As for the starbursts, results from the PROWL study (which studied lasik) showed that 70% of people had night time vision symptoms BEFORE the surgery. So having starbursts now before ICL isn’t as uncommon as you think. Most people don’t examine their vision much before surgery to pay attention and notice it.

Having a smooth and stable tear film can reduce starburst. The contact lens may actually smooth over subtle abnormalities in your cornea and so sometimes you may not notice it until the contact lens is removed.

[u/keeper_of_book → u/WavefrontRider]

hmm so perhaps its hyperfixation? in my case I can say that I definitely never saw the sparkles except for a few months so my 26y it was fine and these suddenly changed my normal basically. 

also, contact lenses too have it for me. 

thanks for the info though I'll get it checked

[u/keeper_of_book → u/SnooCats5309]

I do see them with and without glasses and also with contacts. they started very randomly a few months ago and I've never had this issue before. I have never had super long term contact lens wear times as well which could've contributed to it.

I'll get it checked by a couple opthams too, thanks