Adjusting to Trifocal - Neural Adaptation?

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I'm just over 6 weeks post surgery. I had a Vivity EDOF lens implanted in my left (dominant) eye and Panoptix trifocal lens in my right eye. Overall the recovery has gone smoothly and I have pretty good vision now for close up, intermediate and distance - so pretty happy.

The mix and match approach seems to work well - I have good vision from about 20 cm to infinity. The one drawback is that I am struggling though in low light / challenging light conditions. The eye with a Panoptix lens seems to go blurry from time to time, most noticeably at the end of the day when I'm feeling tired. This makes night time driving a little more difficult.

My Panoptix eye in these instances gives blurry vision, but clear halos.

If I close my right eye and use my left, the Vivity lens works well but if use both eyes, things can get a little hazy. I can still see fine, but it's just not perfect.

On Friday I had a 6 week check up with my surgeon. He did a thorough eye test and everything is bang on - no refractive error which is great. The blurriness he puts down to be Neural Adaptation - my brain needs more time to figure out which image on my retina to use. This will come with time. He's asked me to return in 6 months.

Anyone else had this issue with a Panoptix/Multifocal, and how long did it take to resolve?

Other than just getting on with life, is there anything that I can do to accelerate Neural Adaptation?

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • Posted

    i experience this late at night after 10-11PM when it gets dark. correcting for astigmatism and mild myopia (not detected during day) makes vision better.

    • Posted

      What about first thing in the morning? From what I can see, my vision is worse at night when i'm also tired. Have things improved for you over time?

    • Posted

      i m only 7 weeks out. upon waking up the distance vision isnt great but in 10-15 mins all distances are good. i think things have been steady for last 2 weeks. i have about 0.75 astigmatism which hurts the night vision.

    • Posted

      It could also be dry eye. Try some good quality moisterising eye drops when you feel tired (decreased vision) and see if it makes a difference for you.

      As far as neuro-adaptation, I personally dont believe there is such a thing. I think it's dr's way of saying: take a walk for a few months and hopefully you ll just submit to your current reality before you start bugging me again about things I have no control over. It's like when you get a ding on your new car. It bothers you lots at first, but after a few weeks, you just forget it and live with it even though your "brain" knows the ding is still there!

      Not my words, but an ophthalmologist words. I just paraphrased with my soon to expire artistic license.

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