I have upcoming cataract surgery & I'm told my lens will be +22 power. Can anyone tell me what that means?
By itself it doesn’t mean much. It only means that the optical power of your lens will be 22 diopters. It is neither good or bad it is just a characteristic of any lens, including your natural lens.
What is important though is that your cornea plus your lens could focus light exactly on your retina (if you want to have perfect distance vision).
Usually the optical power of the human eye cornea is about 40D and the lens is about 20D. The distance to retina varies (a lot). If it is too long the image is focused before retina and it causes nearsightedness. If it is too short then the image is focused behind retina and it causes farsightedness.
The task of doctors is to measure your eye (cornea power and distance to retina) precisely and calculate the power of the lens to implant, so all together will focus the light on retina . It implies that with the cataract replacement surgery they can also fix near- or farsightedness if needed. In your case they calculated it as +22D
Thanks so much for your response!
Great info..