CREVE COEUR, Mo. – A St. Louis truck driver is among the first to receive a new FDA-approved implantable contact lens.

David Cheshire, 37, of Pontoon Beach, Illinois has worn glasses since third grade.

“I couldn’t read when I was sitting at my desk,” Cheshire said. “I found if I laid down on my back somehow I could get through my reading assignment a little bit easier. It was a difficult time in my childhood.”

His eyesight never improved, and his astigmatism got worse. After working for years as a professional truck driver, the long days on the road took a toll on his eyes. He tried wearing contacts but didn’t like them and couldn’t afford prescription sunglasses.

“Driving down the interstate day in and day out started to cause a lot of strain on my eyes,” Cheshire said. “Exit signs started to get blurry and I knew that I had to take action to fix my eyesight.”

Cheshire’s eyes were too bad to be correct by LASIK with current technology. After he went to Brinton Vision he learned he was a candidate to receive the new, FDA-approved Visian Toric Implantable Contact Lens (ICL).

On Monday, Cheshire became the first patient in the U.S. to have a procedure with this technology at Brinton Vision in Creve Coeur. “We are thrilled Brinton Vision was chosen be the first practice in the country to offer this state-of-the-art medical technology to improve eyesight in patients, like David, who will greatly benefit from the Visian Toric ICL,” said Jason P. Brinton, MD, founder of Brinton Vision.

About the Visian Toric ICL

The Visian Toric ICL is a biocompatible, implantable contact lens and is the first entrant in a new category of technology that corrects astigmatism without removing tissue from the eye’s cornea (as with LASIK) or from the eye’s lens (as with cataract and RLE procedures). Clinical studies have proven the lens to be a safe and effective treatment for people who are nearsighted, have astigmatism, and who want a potentially reversible option for lifelong vision correction.

Cheshire also has the early stages of keratoconus – a challenging eye disease that causes a variety of issues, including blurring and distortion of vision. Now, with access to a newly approved procedure, his vision can be cleared, despite his disease.

“The Toric ICL opens up a whole new world visually for patients who have keratoconus,” said Dr. Brinton. “This lens has been successfully used internationally for years to correct vision in a subset of patients with this disease and will now be available for the first time in the US – that’s a big deal to the roughly quarter of a million people in this country who, like David, suffer from blurry vision due to this eye condition.”

For David, the short Visian Toric ICL procedure will provide the visual freedom and opportunity to experience life in a way he has only dreamed of since early childhood. He looks forward to more fully enjoying his love of four-wheeling, go-karting, and hiking with clear vision.