What is monovision?
During our developmental process, we all develop a dominant eye, either the right or the left. This is similar to being right or left-handed. Our dominant eye is the one that our brain prefers to use for distance viewing, and the non-dominant eye aids us in depth perception and balance. With Monovision we correct your dominant eye for distance and your non-dominant eye for near. After a short period of adaptation, the brain learns to utilize Monovision with no conscious effort or awareness. This simple procedure has been highly successful. We have corrected thousands of people, just like you, who are ready to stop the aging process… at least where their eyes are concerned. If Monovision sounds right for you, give us a call today to set up your personal evaluation.
When patients reach 40 or 50 years old, they begin to need glasses for reading. This process is not related to their ability to see in the distance. For example, people who have had perfect vision all their lives will require reading glasses when they get to a certain age. Similarly, patients who have had refractive surgery, if they are corrected for distance, when they reach the age of maturity, they will begin to need reading glasses. There is only one way to avoid reading glasses. This to have one eye that is a little bit nearsighted so that it can read close, and leave the other eye corrected for distance. This works in 90% of the cases at least. Dr. Denman always recommends under-correcting the first eye if you are in your 40’s to leave you a little bit nearsighted so that you can read. The second eye is corrected for distance. In this way, you will be able to adapt to the difference between your eyes and will be able to carry on almost all activities including reading, driving an
Monovision refers to separating the duties of the two eyes such that one eye sees better far away and the other eye sees better up close. It is a way of cheating Mother Nature and avoiding the need for reading glasses in patients past the age of 40. It is not perfect vision, but the vast majority of our monovision patients find that their distance and near vision are quite good. Some of our monovision patients still wear a pair of glasses for occasional difficult tasks, such as driving through an unfamiliar city at night, or for reading a fine print novel. However, for normal day to day activities, the vision tends to be quite good. Ask us at your pre-operative visit if monovision might be right for you.
Monovision is when the dominant eye is treated with LASIK to correct for distance, while the other eye is left alone for close up vision. Some patients are happy with this treatment, while others are unable to adjust. Many doctors will suggest wearing contacts in one eye to simulate monovision before LASIK. For those patients who decide against monovision, some opt to correct both eyes with LASIK for distance and wear reading glasses for close up vision. Others may decide they prefer the vision correction they have with contacts or glasses. For those who have monovision and are able to adjust, they enjoy the benefit of seeing long distance with one eye and close up with the other eye.
Monovision is a condition when one eye provides distance vision and the other provides near vision. It can be induced using contact lenses or monovision IOLs, and is a common way of addressing presbyopia (the loss of up-close vision that comes with age). Your brain usually adjusts to monovision, but in cases when it can’t, you will experience blurry vision viewing things both up-close and at a distance. LASIK can be done with monovision, or you can opt for refractive lens exchange with bifocal lens implants.
