Presbyopia and Monovision

During childhood, our eyes have the ability to focus on objects as close as our nose to objects in the far distance. The lens in our eyes acts as a focusing lens in a camera. As each year passes, that ability to "focus" decreases. Typically by the age of forty, an aid such as reading glasses or bifocals will become necessary to focus on near objects. This condition is called presbyopia.

When a nearsighted (myopic) person is wearing glasses or contact lenses to correct their vision, they can also experience presbyopia. Because the nearsighted eye has a natural focal point "at near", many nearsighted individuals with presbyopia can remove their glasses or contact lenses and read or do close work comfortably. Many myopes choose to wear bifocals to eliminate the need for removing and replacing their glasses. If you plan to have refractive surgery to eliminate or reduce your myopia, like everyone else, you will still experience presbyopia sometime in your forties.

Many presbyopic contact lens wearers choose to wear a contact lens on one eye that does not fully correct the myopia, enabling that eye to focus on objects at near, while the other eye focuses well on distant objects. This type of correction is called monovision. The brain adapts to monovision over a period of a few days to weeks, after which time one doesn't even realize that they are only using one eye at a time. This technique has been used by millions of individuals for over thirty years. 

Many of our patients have chosen this type of surgical correction and have eliminated the need for glasses most likely for the rest of their life.  Some patients are bothered by the difference in their eyes with this type of correction and choose to have their myopia only slightly under corrected, or fully corrected needing glasses only for reading or close work when they become presbyopic. If myopia is partially reduced in one eye (as in "monovision") that myopia can be fully reduced later if the patient chooses.