If you are over 45 and have both eyes corrected for distance vision, you will need reading glasses for close work. This is due to the naturally occurring aging process known as presbyopia. It has nothing to do with your nearsightedness or farsightedness, and it happens to everyone.

During the monovision procedure, we intentionally correct one eye for distance and one eye for near vision. If you are already nearsighted, we merely leave some of your nearsightedness in one eye for reading. If you are farsighted to begin with, we intentionally create some nearsightedness in one eye with the laser.

Monovision has been used successfully for years with contact lens correction and with various other types of refractive surgery. By correcting one eye to focus for distant vision and one eye to focus for near vision, our brain will suppress or filter out the image from the eye that is not in clear focus. At vivid laser centre we perform monovision so that the dominant eye focuses at distance and the non-dominant eye focuses clearly on nearby objects.

The advantage of monovision is that you can have good vision both far and near. The disadvantage is that neither will be perfect, as only one eye is in focus at each distance. If you are very particular about clarity, you may not like monovision. However, if you are willing to sacrifice some clarity for the convenience of far less dependence on glasses, you may be thrilled.

In our office, we can give you a preview of monovision with a temporary set of contact lenses.  This allows you to see how monovision will perform in your own environment while performing the tasks that are important to you, whether that is driving, sporting activities, or reading and working on the computer.  A trial of this type is the best way to decide if this will be a good treatment plan for your eyes.