point_ops with GiST PostGIS Spatial Index

I posted this question on StackOverflow, and the only person to answer recommended I ask these lists for more details and link to the question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16927331/postgresql-point-ops-with-gist-postgis-spatial-index

My question is:

The 9.0 release notes for PostgreSQL states the following change:

Add point_ops operator class for GiST (Teodor Sigaev)

This feature permits GiST indexing of point columns. The index can be used for several types of queries such as point <@ polygon (point is in polygon). This should make many PostGIS queries faster.

I have a very large table (millions of rows) with a GEOMETRY(POINT,[SRID]) column that I sometimes compare to polygons. Do I need to do anything to enable this when creating the index? Do I have to use the operator indicated, or would this work with ST_Contains which uses && internally?
Thanks for any help.