Why You Should Try Monovision Contact Lenses

But now that you're past 45, you most likely need glasses again. What a shame. You put on your contact lenses so you can see long distance, but, in addition, you now need reading glasses for the newspaper, menus or directions on a medication bottle.

There's a way around this. It's called monovision contact lenses. This means wearing one contact lens for close vision and one contact lens in the other eye for long-distance vision. This is not a new type of contact lens. It's a different way of wearing the same types of lenses that are currently available.

Here's how it works:

1. Visit your optometrist and ask if you're a candidate for monovision contact lenses.

2. If you're already accustomed to wearing contact lenses, this won't be such a big deal. Your optometrist will usually prescribe a lens to use for long-distance vision for your stronger, more dominant eye. This is usually the same strength as the lens that you're currently wearing in both eyes.

3. Then your eye-care practitioner will prescribe a weaker lens for your other eye.

4. Your eye doctor will instruct you to wear your contact lenses as usual. But you must be careful to put the correct-power lenses in the appropriate eyes.

5. At first, for a few days up to a couple of weeks, you may feel off-balance or that you're experiencing some eye strain as you go about normal activities-driving, reading close-up or reading signs in the distance. During this time, your brain is training itself to use one eye for close reading and the other eye for long distance vision. You don't have to do anything but just go about your business. (Don't keep checking things by closing one eye and trying to see; this will only delay the process of your brain adjusting.)

6. Soon you'll realize that you have no trouble reading close-up or looking far off in the distance-just like when you were younger. If all goes well, you won't need reading glasses anymore-except for reading when you remove your lenses at night.

Most people adjust very well to monovision. Of course, always follow the instructions of your optometrist. The worst that can happen is that you don't get used to monovision and go back to your regular contact lenses and your reading glasses when you need them.

Ilene Springer lives in Malta and has benefited from monovisionfor many years. She is author of An-American-in-Malta.com.