subject: Laser Eye Treatment And Monovision [print this page] Monovision actually means treating one eye to make out visibly in a distance whereas the other eye is treated to get clearer sight for near distances. This treatment is generally applied if one is presbyopic.
Presbyopia is an eye situation that commonly starts in the early forties. When this occurs, the lens inside the eye stiffens making it very hard to focus up near. This is mostly corrected through reading, bifocal, or multifocal spectacles.
For individuals who do not like wearing glasses, contact lenses is a good substitute to rectify presbyopia as well. With multifocal contact lenses, seeing clearly both at a distance and up close is viable. To rectify the eye using laser eye treatment is called presbylasik.
To correct presbyopia through contact lenses, the residual prescription in the eye is changed, making one eye shortsighted to make reading and near work possible. The other eye, meanwhile, is treated to attain clearer sight at a distance. This is termed contact lens monovision.
The principal eye is corrected for distance. The same dominant eye is used when looking into the viewfinder of an SLR camera or through a telescope. The other eye then, is corrected for reading.
Commonly, both eyes are attuned well to seeing both in distance and both up close. However, monovision correction is one in which one eye can see well-defined into the distance while the other is blurry. When reading, the reverse happens.
Because both the brain and visual system conform to a new way of seeing, individuals should expect some kind of irritation with monovision correction. Successful cases of those who opted for monovision contact lens typically conform to the better vision just after a few days, appreciating the freedom of saying goodbye to glasses to achieve both distance and near sight.
For unsuccessful patients, these are commonly reported:
Migraines. This tends to exacerbate the situation if different prescriptions are used in a span of two years.
Driving problems, in particular reverse parking. This is primarily because of the difficulty of turning to the sides to check if the is lined up on either side; the difference in the clearness of the two eyes results to one having clear vision in distance whereas the reading eye will have fuzzy sight.
Computer usage becomes uncomfortable after sometime. There isn't an eye corrected for the average length where the computer screen is viewed as one eye is for far distance and the other is for reading, normally at 40cm. This results to blurred sight when using the computer and in the end lead to postural problems because well-defined sight forces the body to lean closer to the screen.
If monovision contact lenses turn out to be successful, however, this visual set up can be permanently treated with laser eye treatment. This process entails the same approach as with regular refractive surgery, except that one eye is purposely treated for shortsightedness to counterbalance for the reading.
