Christopher A. Kuntz

Presbyopia Correcting Strategies 

 

 

A.  Micro Monovision

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All lenses placed during cataract surgery have some depth of focus.  This is even true of the standard monofocal lenses provided by your health care insurance. The most common presbyopia correcting strategy is to choose a slightly different focal distance for each eye using standard monofocal lenses.  This is called micro monovision.  

 

Micro monovision does not involve any extra expense on your part.  Micro monovision will not completely free you from glasses for all tasks, but can provide significant glasses freedom at the range that is most important to you.  Larger discrepancies in focus between the two eyes can also be created with cataract surgery (mini monovision and full monovision). These are more likely to result in loss of stereoscopic (3D) vision and sense that the eyes are not working together.  These more aggressive monovision strategies should only be considered if you have experience living with monovision using contact lenses.

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Tell me more about micro monovision and designing my vision

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B.  Multifocal and Extended Depth of Focus (EDF) Lenses

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Multifocal presbyopia correcting lenses come in three different powers.  The higher the power, the closer in the near function, but also the higher the unwanted side effects such as glare, halos, and loss of contrast sensitivity.

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The lower power multifocals, such as the ReSTOR 2.5 and ReZOOM 2.5 lens, have significantly reduced side effects compared with their higher-powered predecessors. However the near focus of these lenses is not very close in.  This is why they do well in taller people.

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Recently a new lens has come on the market in the United States, the Symfony Extended Depth of Focus lens. This lens was well received in Canada and Europe prior to FDA approval in the US.

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The Symfony lens acts like a low powered multifocal lens.  The side effects of this lens are low.  This lens also comes in several toric (astigmatic correcting) powers, allowing patients with moderate amounts of regular astigmatism to take advantage of presbyopic correction.  Insurance does not cover these lenses.

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Tell me more about multifocal and extended depth of focus lenses

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