Monovision Contact Lenses

Monovision contact lenses are a unique but effective alternative for people with presbyopia.

If you've recently decided to see if contacts can help with your presbyopia (a condition of the eye that, with age, decreases your ability to read up close), then you've most likely started researching your options.  You most likely have heard of bi focal contact lenses, and even multifocal contact lenses.  But have you ever heard of monovision contact lenses?

With bi focal contact lenses, there are two prescription “powers” within one lens; one to help you see up close, and one to help you see far away.  For many people, this works just fine.  Others, however, have difficulty with “image jump,” which is what happens when the eyes have to jump back and forth between two distinct powers.  Plus, there are multiple ranges of vision that the bi focals don't fix; they only help with one or the other. 

With multifocal contact lenses, however, there are multiple powers blended together throughout one lens.  That way your eye can focus on items that are really close, far in the distance, and everything in between.  The lenses are designed so the transition is smooth and image jump is no longer a factor. 

However, the challenge with multifocal lenses is that each power within the lens is different, and therefore these custom contact lenses are very difficult to fit.  Also, with eyes that are changing with age, some people need to update their prescription frequently, which gets expensive and bothersome. 

One alternative that works for many people is monovision contact lenses.  With monovision lenses, one eye is fit with a distance lens (if necessary, for some people it's not needed), and the other eye is fit with a “near” lens for reading. 

Of course, this seems a bit odd at first, and perhaps one of the reasons monovision contact lenses are not as well known as the other options.  However, this option creates lenses that work exactly as nature does; and many people have fantastic results. 

You see, every one of us has a dominant eye and a non-dominant eye; one eye that is stronger, or has better vision, than the other.  When it comes to vision, the dominant eye literally takes over, and the brain “listens” to the signals that the stronger eye is sending.  When it comes to reading, the other, less dominant eye kicks in, and we are able to read.

Monovision contact lenses simply take a process that nature already uses, and builds upon it.  It works for many people because it removes the complicated process of multifocal lenses, and addresses the proper prescription that is most natural for each eye. 

Of course, monovision lenses are not for everyone.  They tend to work best in people that don't have severe or strong prescriptions or vision correction needs.  They also will never provide perfect vision; each eye has to “compromise” at some point, and blurriness at certain depths will occur.  Also, many people report a decline in depth perception; so they aren't best for athletes or anyone that relies heavily on depth perception for their job. 

But, for the right person, monovision contact lenses can be the clear option. If you want to keep current with the site updates, subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss any of the news!

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