Symfony lens in 1 eye, Monofocal (Distance in Other) - Anyone had this done?

he wont have monovision with symfony in one eye and monofocal in another.

with monofocal set for distance he will have very good binocular distance vision. any near and intermediate will mostly be from symfony.

the monofocal will reduce halos around the lights but not the concentric circles. the monofocal will not suppress any glare from symfony.

I didn't know what a symphony lens was until I just read about it. I know that is not what I got and probably wouldn't have if one had offered.

Umm...sorry, soks, but your information is definitely not universally true.:)

I have a B&L monofocal lens in left eye which settled at -0.25 myopic, actually improved in the most recent month - 6 months post-op! In right eye I have a Symfony Toric which is still settling/healing, but currently at -0.75, two months post-op. Left eye is dominant set for distance. Right was intentionally set for slightly more myopia to minimize Symfony night driving artifacts.

At checkup 2 days ago, I measured 2020 distance and better than 20/20 near & intermediate in the Left dominant eye with monofocal. (Yes, a phenomenal result. But my sister had the same result with monofocal lenses in BOTH eyes!)

My non-dominant Right eye with Symfony tested 20/25 distance and better than 20/20 near & intermediate.

So, I'm definitely seeing all ranges with both eyes. The right eye is slightly better focus for near, but the left eye has some remaining astigmatism.

Having the left dominant eye set for best distance with monofocal is AWESOME in mitigating the night time artifacts from the Symfony! I truly barely notice the concentric circles at all - they're very faint.

Glare from night driving persists in both eyes, but is much less than immediately post-op. Halos aren't really a problem for either eye.

I found two solutions for night driving glare:

1. I found a "night visor" online at Amazon which has a good optic quality, grayish-clear polaroid looking visor that attaches to the normal car visor and flips down below, to provide an equivalent area with glare protection. It's not as dark as normal sunglasses would be at all, but really eliminates most of the glare. (It also has a yellow visor that's supposed to be for daytime, but I don't find it as effective as normal polaroid sunglasses, so rarely use it.)

Here's the title "Car Windshield Tac Sun Visor Night Anti-Glare - Zone Tech Premium Quality Universal Sunshade and Night Vision Anti-Dazzle Windshield Driving Visor". It cost $15 and was delivered free within 2 days.

Don't try the similar product advertised on TV as the "Battle Visor". They're a scam company unfortunately. Never delivered product & I had to call my cr cd company to get the charge removed.

2. I add some pale turquoise sunglasses for the 2-lane road to my house, populated with lots of new cars with bright LED lights. Between the two, I have little problem with glare anymore.:)

Going to look for that - thanks for posting. Think majority of people think those new LED car headlights annoying (not just cataract patients). I am sure they are awesome if you are behind the wheel but really think they should be banned). They are blinding.

hi seeherenow

wouldn't you have been better off with monofocal in both eyes if you got 20/20 near/intermediate with it?

you would have also eliminated the symfony halos altogther.

Hi Soks:)

Yes, in retrospect, I might have!:) But even tho my sister had a similar result (with Plano monofocals!), I had no way of predicting that for me and wanted to be sure to have best near vision possible.

My (2nd, right eye) surgeon considered a toric monofocal. But in his calculations in relation to the left eye, we decided that the amount of myopia he would have to aim for in the right would be more than I wanted.

At that point (4 months post-op) the left eye was still fluctuating, often showing more myopia than targeted , at -0.75 in stead of -0.5. I'm truly amazed that now at 6 mos post-op (just 2 months later), the left eye has improved all the way to -0.25, something which my first surgeon had predicted would not happen.

So I expect my right eye will continue healing for quite a while, too. And in the meantime, the Symfony halos & "spiderwebs" really aren't troublesome at all. They were for the first week, and I wouldn't want them in both eyes. But I expect them to diminish even further as I heal more.

You're welcome, SueAn! Yes, i found those lights troublesome even before cataracts! And now I feel slightly bad because my car has them.:) I think they're more common now because the LED's last pretty much as long as the car.

that's interesting. thanks for sharing.

it must be a good bonus to improve from -0.75 to plano and not lose near also.

LOL yes I have definitely heard from people that their live of those new headlights depend on which side of the wheel you ate on. Apparently they ate awesome for driving on dark roads at night. My car lease is up in a year do likely I will follow suit and get a car with them too.

Glad your Symfony eye has improved. I am driving a lot more confidently now than I was a year ago. The near vision I got compensates for those concentric circles. As you say no way of knowing in advance if I could have gotten same result with monofocals. It is a total crap shoot.

Yeah, it's pretty awesome! Very grateful! My Symfony eye and the brain are still learning to coordinate which of those concentric circles is the best at any given moment. So I "overuse" the left eye a bit for now, but expect it all to work out well.:)

Good to hear that is a good arrangement.