Does anyone have experience with Blended vision with Vivity Lens'?
Posted , 5 users are following.
I am 61 yrs old and have cataract surgery scheduled for my left eye on Dec 3rd and for my right eye on Dec 8th. I have a significant cataract in my left eye and am told I also have a minor one in my right eye. I am near sighted and have been wearing glasses since I was like 5 yrs old. I was trying to decide between Monofocal lens' and Trifocal lens'. My thinking was that to justify the significant out of pocket expense I would expect not to require glasses after surgery but still wanted great quality of vision. I wasn't sure if the trifocal lens would give me the same quality of vision as monofocal lens' with glasses. I called the clinic where the surgery will be done with some questions and talked with a counselor (not the surgeon) and he suggested I consider "blended vision" with the Vivity lens. My left eye would favor the near vision and the right (dominant) eye would favor far vision. He said there wouldn't be a big difference in far or near vision between the eyes and in his opinion was superior to the trifocals. In my case it would be the PanOptic trifocals.
Has anyone had cataract surgery with the Vivity lens put in for blended vision and if so what has been your experience with it?
0 likes, 8 replies
RonAKA kerry7558
Posted
If by "blended vision" you mean monovision (one eye corrected for distance, and the other for nearer vision), then I have considered it, but not fully done it with an IOL lens yet. I have had cataract surgery on one eye which has a monofocal lens set for distance vision. I am now doing a trial of mini-monovision by wearing a contact in my other unoperated eye that leaves me mildly short sighted at about -1.25 D. I like it a lot and am essentially eye glass free. I can see distance at 20/20 and read down to about 10" or so. I do need some +1.25 readers to see the very finest print. But in a normal day I never need them. Computer, TV, iPhone, I see well without glasses.
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For my permanent solution I have considered another monofocal lens but with an under correction of -1.25 to -1.50 D. I have also considered the Vivity lens but under corrected by -0.75 D to give me a bit better reading similar to the monofocal option. The knock on Vivity is that it has reduced contrast sensitivity, and may not be the best for night vision. I think to some degree this can be offset by using a monofocal which has much better contrast sensitivity in the distance eye, and only the Vivity in the nearer vision eye.
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But with this all considered I am leaning toward the monofocal option.
NeluG kerry7558
Posted
Hi Kerry,
Yes, I do have a very fresh experience with blended vision using Vivity lenses.
Before the surgery I was presbyotic, with +2D ADD for both eyes and some astigmatism, but not very significant. I got Vivity toric lenses in both eyes.
My left eye (non-dominant) was done on November 3rd and my right eye on November 22th.
For my left eye I chose mini-monovision, with -0.5D and the surgeon was spot-on.
The right eye was targeted for plano, 20/20 for distance.
I had my two-week visit for my left eye last week and I was told that my distance vision is 20/15 (?!). That's very weird, since it was supposed to be slightly myopic. My home measurements for distance are more like into 20/20 range though.
My right eye was also measured during my next-day appointment after the surgery and I have 20/20 for distance.
For smartphone distance both eyes are at around 20/25, according to my own measurements. I use an app (Verana Vision Test) everyday, to track my progress.
My subjective comparison between the two eyes contradicts what the doctors tell me though.
My right eye seem to be better for reading up-close and the left eye better for distance.
Did the surgeon messed up something? I don't know and I don't care because overall I'm very pleased with the results and I think (and hope) my eyesight will only improve from now, during the next few months, to a year. I'm sure my vision is not stabilized yet.
The only thing I don't like is halos at night. I also had starburts in the beginning but they went away for my left eye after about 4 days from the surgery. I'm sure the neural adaptation will kick in eventually and I won't notice them any longer. Driving at night is not a problem for me and I stopped using glasses.
Of course, for very fine print and detail work I'd still need them.
My wife had to do full monovision because her prescription was very high, like +5D for near, so she got her left eye done for near vision and the right eye for distance.
She did it about 5 months before me and her near vision is better than mine, she can see any fine print on the pill bottles but because of the very high "CPU usage" all day long, her vision is not great when driving back home after a long work day. Her poor brain is done, trying to get the in-focus images from both eyes all day long.
And one more example: my mother-in-law (age 75) had cataract and she got her eyes fixed this year as well (we were all very busy 😃) and she has very good distance vision and intermediate vision and very functional near vision (she doesn't need glasses for dektop use and sometimes even for smartphone,too),
She got simple monofocal lenses in both eyes, set for 20/20 for distance, which she achieved.
There you go, three different cases for you to think about, one of them being exactly what you're interested in.
I hope it helps,
All the best,
Nelu
RonAKA NeluG
Edited
Interesting results. It kind of looks like you ended up plano or close for both eyes with the Vivity, but still good overall results. I think the best measure of distance vision is a full refraction visual acuity test for eyeglasses. It is probably not fully reflective until you have been 6 weeks post surgery in each eye.
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Thank you for the Verana Vision Test suggestion. I downloaded it and tested my eyes to see what I would get. I have a monofocal IOL in my right eye that gets 0.00 Sphere in a refraction vision test and 20/20 for vision. The left is being corrected with a contact to approximately -1.25 D, to simulate mini-monovision. My test result for close vision with the Verana Test was 20/50 for my right eye, and 20/20 for my left. It leaves me wondering however how it compensates for different screen sizes and perhaps screen resolution as well. I am using an iPhone 8+.
NeluG RonAKA
Posted
Hi Ron,
I agree with your statement about the full refraction visual acuity test required to draw definitive conclusions.
I was planning to do that sometime in the Spring, just to see where am I at and get a glasses prescription for the rare times I'd need them.
I'm curious what something like neural adaptation training can bring to the table to make my brain get used faster to the new lenses...
I have an iPhone 11 Pro so the display is 5.8" as opposed to your iPhone 8+ which is 5.5"
My wife just got an 13 Pro Max yesterday and it's such a joy to use that screen. Do you think I can get it from her? 😃
kerry7558 NeluG
Posted
Thank you NeluG for your reply. You have helped me and I greatly appreciate it. You also helped me with a follow up question I was going to ask. I was wondering what the difference would be between "blended" or "mini monovison" with monofocal and Vivity lens'. I would incur a $3900 out of pocket cost for the premium lens per eye and wanted to know if the cost is justified with the Vivity lens.
I golf and being able to see the ball flight is important to me. Currently with my cataract in my left eye, I cannot pick up the ball well on longer shots with just my right eye. I do have concerns that with mini monovison via monofocals I would not be able to see the ball as well due to possible depth perception problems with one eye only being able to see distance clearly. The counselor I talked with told me that with the Vivity lens both eyes are doing the same job (just not quite to the same degree). There would be less difference in far distance vision between the two eyes with Vivity than with monofocals. Do you think that is accurate from your and your wife's experience?
I am also considering the PanOptic Trifocals. I have seen significant starbursts during night time driving all my life. Being near sighted my near vision is important to me. I would tolerate the halos and starbursts if it meant having very good near vision. This is why trifocals are still an option for me.
Between the different vision trade offs and the out of pocket expenses (although having better vision is my priority) I am having a difficult time deciding on my lens choice.
NeluG kerry7558
Posted
First you need to know for sure what options you actually have and for this you have to go in for a thorough assessment. Some practices do it for free (maybe just to get you ?), some you have to pay for it. I live in Calgary and I had both options and I chose the latter because if you decide to go ahead with the surgery that fee will be included in the final amount.
Following my assessment all possible options were on the table for me but multi-focals are not for everyone. I decided against them because of the dysphotopsias.
I thought long and hard about my other three options: full monovision ( blended, as you called it) , straight monofocals set for distance only and Vivity lenses.
I chose Vivity with mini-monovision because there was a possibility not to have to wear glasses any more, also my stereoscopic vision would still be intact and the optical aberrations would not be as bad as with multifocals.
You like to golf so you need you stereoscopic vision. For this reason full monovision would not work for you.
If you care so much about your near vision and the secondary effects that come with the multifocals don't bother you as much, then go with trifocals.
Koshkaboo kerry7558
Posted
I have sort of had this. Almost 2 months ago I had Vivity put in my right eye. It ended up -.25 which was what aimed for. I am 20/20 distance and have good computer distance (a little bit of a strain though) and about 20/25 near. I can read phone without glasses although for extended reading I do want reading glasses. That is all a very good Vivity experience.
My left eye had had retina surgery (peel of macular pucker) so needed a monofocal lens. I had the light adjustable lens put in that eye. I am aiming for it to probably be at -1.25 to -1.5. This is a lens where the power can be adjusted post-surgery. In my first adjustment, they aimed for -1. The idea through this is to improve the intermediate vision. Anyway, it is not the same as having a Vivity lens in the left eye (which I would prefer but can't do). But I do get the experience of seeing how the two eyes work together with a fairly mild monovision. For me it is fine. My combined distance vision with both eyes is about 20/25 (almost 20/20). My brain has adjusted fine to the differences in the two.
Some people can adjust to an extreme monovision though and mine is pretty mild. So you need to talk to doctor about that and see how extreme a difference they plan for the two eyes.
geo75674 kerry7558
Posted
Did you go with the Vivity lens and did the near and far correction work?