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Monofocal IOL for distance in one eye only

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patty67004
patty67004

I'm having monofocal IOL placed in my left non-dominant eye. I've been told objects will appear larger in the IOL eye. My concern is that my right eye, which doesn't need cataract surgery yet, will not "work" properly with my left. Will I then need to have my right eye done? I would rather not do surgery in my right until necessary, as I depend on that eye for my near vision. Thoughts??

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5 Replies

  • RonAKA
    RonAKA patty67004

    Edited

    I have a monofocal IOL in one eye and the other not operated on yet. I do notice a bit of a difference in the size of the image when I correct the non operated eye with eyeglasses. It also does give me a bit of a dizzy sensation when I first put the eyeglasses (progressives) on, but it does go away after a while. My preferred solution is a contact lens in my non operated eye. No dizzy sensation and little difference in image size that I can detect.

    .

    I am also using the opportunity to try out monovision so my contact under corrects by about -1.25 D. I like it and am eye glasses free 95% of the time. I expect I will do it permanently with an IOL when I get the second eye done.

    .

    This said I think image size difference may be due to the location of the corrective lens - on the eye or in front of the eye. And it may be more of an issue when a higher correction is applied by the eyeglass lens. My correction is in the range of about -2.5 D.

    • patty67004
      patty67004 RonAKA

      Posted

      Thanks for your input...there is so much to consider. Thinking of doing a slight undercorrection distance monofocal for the current eye, probably mono distance for the right dominant eye(down the line).

    • Night-Hawk
      Night-Hawk patty67004

      Edited

      The difference in visual size/shape of objects is only noticeable when wearing eyeglasses where the correction for each eye is significantly different. Its supposed to be only a big issue if the correction difference between the two eyes is greater than about 2.0diopters.

      Myself, I have had cataract surgery only in my right eye since my left eye doesn't have a sufficient contract to affect its corrected vision. My right eye's toric monofocal IOL corrected it so it only now has about 1.0d cylinder astigmatism but the power is at plano - so without eyeglasses its just slightly worse than 20/20 (about 20/25) at distance.

      I need eyeglasses or contact lens correction however still for my left eye which has about 2.0d astigmatism, so I wear eyeglasses that correct that as well as the smaller residual astigmatism left in my right eye - giving me 20/15 great distance vision in both eyes. I can notice a size/shape difference of objects between the two eyes only when wearing the eyeglasses if I close one eye. It doesn't bother me however with both eyes open, my brain has gotten used to it I guess since the difference isn't beyond the average 2.0d correction between the eyes. The left eye with bigger correction in the eyeglasses seems to make say a face look squished vertically a bit compared to my right eye, so a face looks rounder in my left eye and taller in my right eye! If I can wear a contact lens only in my left eye then that gets shapes to look very close to that of the right eye, since the lens is closer to the eye lens. So its only with eyeglasses where the lens is farther away that you get that issue.

      When the correction difference between the eyes is too great, it can cause more severe issues including headaches and when thats the case they often recommend you get the other eye done with cataract surgery IOL as well even if it doesn't have a bad enough cataract yet. The alternative is to use a contact lens.

    • patty67004
      patty67004 Night-Hawk

      Posted

      Thanks for your response and sharing your experience. I guess I will have to see how my vision is after the left eye is done. Will try to have any corrections done with glasses, as I've never worn contacts.

    • CoffeeJmk
      CoffeeJmk Night-Hawk

      Posted

      Thank you for this. I had my right lens replaced with an IOL for distance, which is expected to leave me at about a +2.5 in that eye. I popped out that lens from my glasses, put them on, and almost fell over from instant dizziness and nausea. My left eye is a -5.5

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