Contact lens trial vs. IOLs

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I’ve been doing a monovision contact lens trial for a couple of weeks, with plano in the dominant right eye and -1.00 in the left. Overall, the monovision gives me a very slight off-balance feel, and I do see a very slight blur or shadow. But what’s encouraging is that I have functional near vision, able to read text messages on my cell phone at around 16” (left eye is clear, right eye is fuzzy). I wanted to ask about a post I came across a while back on a different forum (can’t remember where) from someone who said they hated monovision when they tried it with contacts but ended up liking it when it was done permanently after surgery. Does anyone have similar experiences they can share comparing contacts to IOLs? Will the uneasy feeling I get with monovision contacts be less, or possibly go away completely after monovision cataract surgery?

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4 Replies

  • Posted

    I've been experiencing the exact same thing with my trial contact, and am now nervous of having a monovision IOL. I've wondered if the cataract is giving me that "off-balance" (excellent description) effect.

    Sorry that I can't help here.

    • Posted

      My cataract is not bad yet at all, so I don't think it's contributing much to the problems I'm seeing. Monovision at -1.00 would be perfect for me if it weren’t for the slight negative effects. I’m hoping that someone can confirm it has something to do with the contact being on the surface, and it clears up a bit once it’s corrected inside the eye. I have another eye appointment tomorrow and will be asking to try out contacts at -0.75 and -0.50 to see how much worse the near vision gets.

      I also did an earlier trial with multifocal contacts, thinking that it might lessen the need for monovision and approximate some of the better reading I’d get with Vivity lenses. Unfortunately, I found the far vision to be a little less than 20/20, and there was slight loss of contrast compared to monofocals… so I'm going to try and stay with monofocals.

  • Edited

    I have done a trial with contacts and now have IOLs in a mini-monovision configuration. Because the natural eye still has some accommodation I found I needed about 0.25 D more myopia to see with an IOL compared to a contact simulated myopia. I think with an IOL -1.5 D is best, while with a contact I could get away with -1.25 D. Based on my experience I don't think -1.0 D is enough myopia to enable most reading. I didn't have any issues with a dizzy feeling with contacts or with an IOL.

  • Posted

    i had some glasses made up at -2.00 and I'm loving them for reading. Much better than the progressives. I've ordered some - 0.75 spectacles for computer. The -2.00s work for computer but I have to pull it a bit closer. Why don't they do monovision glasses? My recommended targeting is -2.00 and -0.75 and I'd like to try that. I have too much astigmatism for regular contacts I'd have to get sclerals, which would cost my insurance company thousands of $.

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