Unlike bifocal contact lenses, a monovision-treated lens has only one power. Since bifocal contact lenses have two focal points on a single lens, people may take a period of time to adjust to the power change during vision switch. The fitting technique monovision provides another effective solution to prescription eyes.
Using monovision, you can wear a contact lens for distance vision on your dominant eye and another lens for close vision on the other eye. With proper coordination, the two eyes perform well in seeing at all distances, creating acceptable and comfortable vision. Although monovision is rarely used, they fit most of the people without awareness of “distance eye” or “close eye”.
Two monovision variations are designed to suit personal vision demands. First type is mini-monovision. Some people may find that standard monovision can not provide clear distance vision. Mini-monovision adds a slight magnifying power to the close lens. People with mini-monovision can get a perfect vision if they spend much of their time in distance vision and only a little close vision. The other variation is modified monovision, which combines a single vision lens for the distance eye and a bifocal lens for the close eye. This type offer satisfying distance vision as well as acceptable close vision.
Monovision is sometimes a dilemma for some people, that it may bring neither perfect distance vision nor close vision. In addition, the two eyes may be not in perfect coordination so that depth perception is affected.
Monovision contact lenses’ fitting requires more skills and more time. The wearer’s vision dissatisfaction can be magnified even by a slight change in the lens power, which may also spend several days to adjust. In this consideration, monovision contact lenses fitting may be mostly charged twice the fee for a standard contacts fitting.
Monovision contact lenses can also be used for a test to refractive surgeries, such as LASIK, conductive keratoplasty and so on. These surgeries may realize monovision for your eyes. But a prior two-week test of wearing monovision contact lenses is necessary. You can ask your doctor for more information about the difference between monovision and bifocal lenses, and then choose the better one for your personal needs.