Dan Reinstein has Laser Eye Surgery to correct his reading glasses
Although he’s dedicated his career to improving the vision of others, Professor Dan Reinstein has had perfect eyesight his entire life.
No glasses, no contacts, no surgery — just clear, faultless vision that allowed him to work as an expert surgeon by day and play the sax and enjoy life with his family by night.
But if there was one person who knew more than any that this ideal wouldn’t last forever, it’s Professor Reinstein. With presbyopia affecting everyone at some point in their lives — typically between the ages of 40 and 50 — it was only a matter of time before his vision would deteriorate and leave him in need of some sort of vision correction treatment.
For a long time, that meant only one thing: getting a glasses or contacts prescription. Laser Eye Surgery has helped rid tens of millions of people of common refractive errors like shortsightedness and astigmatism for over two decades, but the treatment felt short when trying to battle the effects of ageing and conquer the inevitable onset of presbyopia.
But that all changed several years ago when Professor Reinstein, as though preparing for his own day of reckoning and so that he could jump from starting to need spectacles to not needing them, essentially skipping spectacles completely, pioneered a unique laser treatment that could successfully counter the effects of ageing in the eye.
The revolutionary technique, known as PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision, was developed by Professor Reinstein in 2004, introduced by Carl Zeiss into their laser platform for worldwide distribution in 2009 and which the London Vision Clinic has been able to provide to over 6,000 patients to significantly reduce – and in the vast majority of cases completely eliminate – the need for reading glasses, bifocals, trifocals or varifocals.
Eleven years later, after successfully creating a laser treatment for presbyopia, that day Professor Reinstein had been waiting for finally came. When in his mid to late 40s, his ability to read and zoom from distance to near objects started to deteriorate — sure signs of the age-related eye condition, presbyopia.
As you would expect, Professor Reinstein knew exactly what was happening. Natural changes to the lens within the eye were leading to a reduced ability to change focus from far to near objects. He knew the time had come to play the role of the patient and receive a dose of his own medicine.
As seen in a short film that appeared on the BBC’s The One Show on the 4th of April 2018, Professor Reinstein underwent PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision under the trusted and skilled guidance of London Vision Clinic colleague Mr Glenn Carp.
The first step in the treatment is using a revolutionary ultrasound scanner — the Artemis Insight 100, which Professor Reinstein also happened to design — to analyse the cornea with a precision rivalling 1/100th the width of a human hair.
What makes PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision so revolutionary is that it alters the depth of focus in each eye in a way that means you don’t need to rely on your natural zoom anymore. By altering one eye to work best up close and a little at a distance, and the other to work best at a distance and a little up close, it creates a ‘blend zone’ that enables you to see close up, middle distance, and far away objects, all in one seamless field of vision.
Today, Professor Reinstein is enjoying living and working the spectacle-free life. By day, he performs Laser Eye Surgery with clear, unhindered vision, same as always. And by night, he relishes the precious moments with his children helping them with homework without the need for spectacles as well as being able to read music in the dimly lit 606 Jazz Club in Chelsea where he plays the once a month with his jazz group.
