As we age our eye muscles start to deteriorate and we have trouble focusing on things that are close. This typically occurs around the age of forty but is different for everyone. A sign is if you are constantly lifting your current distance correction glasses to read a menu at a restaurant. Or asking your partner to hold a book out further so you can see what it says.
This condition is called presbyopia. There are several good options in optics that can correct this condition. Including lined bifocals, progressive lenses, or reading glasses. One fix that is often not talked about is monovision.
Monovision is a type of vision correction that corrects distance in one eye, and presbyopia in the other. Essentially, you have one eye that is corrected to see far away and one eye that can see close up.
Your brain will recognize that images are blurred with one eye and adjust to know that it needs to use the other eye when looking at different objects. Ten million people in the United States currently use monovision to correct their presbyopia, and that number is expected to grow.
Monovision doesn’t work for everyone, just like the other options for adjusting for presbyopia, it takes some getting used to and may not be the best solution for you. There is really only one way to find out, try it! If you would like to try monovision, set up an appointment with us today!
Some patients adjust more quickly, but the average is around two weeks. The more the patient wears the corrective lenses the more quickly they can adjust. Typically, a patient will see shadowing for the first few weeks. The brain will eventually adjust for this.
Every person has a dominate and a non-dominate eye. During your eye exam, the doctor is able to determine which eye is dominate and is able to prescribe a vision adjustment that will work best for the patient.
Just like any vision correction, monovision correction can create headaches. Eventually, the brain will adjust, and this will resolve itself.
More questions? Just contact us and we can answer any questions you may have when considering if monovision is the right correction for you!
