I am having cataract surgery on my right eye and considering a different Lens than my left.

If the surgeon is targeting -2.25D for your right eye, that means your maximum visual acuity would be targeted at approximately 100/2.25 = 45cm in that eye. You'd probably see very well from about 100/3.25 = 30cm to about 100/1.25 = 80cm and your right eye vision would slowly degrade beyond those limits.

If your left eye is at -0.25D, then you should have good vision from about about 80cm to infinity and the two eyes could potentially see very well from 30cm to infinity. You wouldn't have much binocular vision which might give you poorer depth perception than if both eyes were more closely matched.

That sounds like a lot of monovision and you might want to experiment with a contacts to simulate -2.25D to make sure your eyes can adapt to it. If your right eye is already at -2.25D then you wouldn't need to experiment.

When you have prescriptions that differ by more than 1.5D or so, the sizes of the images generated from each eye can be significantly different and your brain might have a hard time fusing them...Headaches, etc might result.

When you say you are getting a different lens, does that mean the same brand of lens with different power, or a different brand/type of lens? If you are getting another monofocal, then some monovision makes good sense, especially if you know you can tolerate it.

What she is suggesting is called monovision. One eye is set to give you distance vision and the other eye set to give you closer vision. I think it is a good idea, but I would suggest that -2.25 in the second eye is too much. That is full monovision and is falling out of favour. If your other eye is 0.00 D (full distance), then you are going to have a 2.25 D differential between the eyes and that could be very hard to adapt to. Instead I would ask for -1.50 D in the second eye. This is called mini-monovision and is more commonly used today. I have one eye at 0.00 D and the other at about -1.40 D. It works very well. Without glasses I can see 20/20+ in the distance. And at the same time I can read my iPhone and computer quite easily. I am essentially eyeglasses free except for the very smallest print in dimmer light.

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And I suspect it is not a different lens, but just a different target for correction. Lenses come in a whole range of powers and the surgeon just selects the power that will give the desired target.

Hi Joan,

I was in the same circumstance a while back. I had a successfully implanted monofocal lens set for distance several years ago and in September had another lens, a Rayner EMV extended depth of focus (EDOF), set "in" - 0.75D from the monofocal. Because the Rayner lens gives an ADDITIONAL depth of focus of maybe -1.0 diopter or more you get the advantage of maintaining a high degree of stereo vision (stereopsis) due to the minimal offset. Plus the lens has a hyperopic "bump" that assists distance vision in a monovision or mini-monovision scenario. The lens was specifically designed for monovision/mini-monovision. Feel free to research it. There are a number of YouTube videos out there about it as well.

Regards,

IG

What they said. 😃 That would be a LOT of monovision, to the degree that not everyone could adjust to it. I'd definitely do a contact lens trial of varying amounts to see what is comfortable and what you prefer. As others said, the literature indicates that "most" can adjust to a difference between their eyes of up to 2D but that amount carries the risk of degrading binocularity and depth perception. A lens with some EDOF can provide more near vision with not as big a difference between the eyes. Do you know the refraction measurements your eyes have now?

If you google the article below you will find some more information about mini-monovision.

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Pseudophakic mini-monovision: high patient satisfaction, reduced spectacle dependence, and low cost Debora Goetz Goldberg, Michael H. Goldberg, Riddhi Shah, Jane N. Meagher & Haresh Ailani BMC Ophthalmology volume 18, Article number: 293 (2018)

Joan you can currently see your iPhone and computer without glasses after you had the surgery in your left eye?