Facts About Monovision Contact Lenses

A Non Bifocal Contacts Vision Correction Option

Monovision contact lenses are a vision correction alternative, if you cannot adjust to bifocal contact lenses. This option is often easier and cheaper alternative than multifocal contacts. Here your non-dominant eye is corrected for near vision, and your dominant eye is corrected for distance vision.

With mono vision contact lenses, one of your eyes focuses for distant objects while your other eye becomes the reading eye. Your brain learns to adapt to this and will automatically use your correct eye depending on the location of material in view.

Benefits of Monovision Contact Lenses

Wearing monovision contact lenses means you compromise your near and distance visual acuity because you won't get perfect vision both up close and far away. But this vision correction has proven working well for many people.

If you aren't doing well at the beginning, be patient... It takes some times for your brain to adjust the alteration of depth perception aspect. And you may not like the loss of three-dimension vision that it causes.

So, work closely with your eye doctor during period of adaptation. If you're the right person, mono vision contact lenses can be a great fit. Furthermore, they are also convenient to wear and cheaper than progressive or bifocal contact lenses.

Limitations of Mono Vision Contacts

The mono vision term implies that each of your eyes works "alone". In other word, you don't see binocularly. You may lose clarity in the middle distance vision or lose some depth perception, which might be a problem for tasks such as piloting airplanes. Compared with bifocal contact lenses, mono vision contact lenses result in a small reduction in high-contrast visual acuity.

To examine your fit, eye doctor may ask you questions to help decide whether monovision is right for you. He or she might want to know whether

your activities require a sharp distance vision,
you drive extensively at night, or
you require finely detailed vision for close-up work.

Mono vision contacts aren't for you if you answer yes to the above questions. Mono vision is right for you if you accept a compromise between near and distance vision acuity.

Modified Monovision

What if you haven't adapted to "mono vision" after several adjustments? Your eyecare practitioner may suggest you with modified monovision contacts.

In modified monovision your dominant eye wears a contact lens to correct distance vision. In mono vision technique, your non-dominant eye wears a contact lens that corrects near vision. But here your non-dominant eye wears a bifocal contact lens to have both distance and near vision correction.

Modified monovision usually offers an improved 3-dimensional vision and solves most monovision complaints.

So, visit your eye doctor to find if monovision contact lenses will work for you. Also remember to ask about how much your presbyopia is expected to increase in the future and how monovision applies to your specific condition.

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