A few years back I inquired about lasik eye surgery. The informal suggestion was monovision. I am again thinking of lasik eye surgery. My last prescription was –2.50 +0.50 x 175 / -2.25 +.50 x 180. I think this may be well suited for me. Before I pursue lasik eye surgery, can someone help me clear up a few issues. (1) With monovision would/could I only have one eye (my right) worked on. And realize a cost saving for lasik on one eye only. (2) If monovision wasn’t right for me after procedure, could I at later time have second untouched eye (left eye) only worked on, again paying for one eye only? (3) Currently I read and perform computer work perfectly without any glasses. That is great and convenient. If I get monovision, is it likely I could continue to read without glasses and also see distance without glasses. I am 46 male, who enjoys outdoor sports (golf and target shooting especially).

>A few years back I inquired about
>lasik eye surgery. The informal
>suggestion was monovision. I am
>again thinking of lasik eye surgery.
> My last prescription was –2.50
>+0.50 x 175 / -2.25 +.50
>x 180. I think this
>may be well suited for me.
> Before I pursue lasik eye
>surgery, can someone help me clear
>up a few issues. (1)
> With monovision would/could I only
>have one eye (my right) worked
>on. And realize a cost
>saving for lasik on one eye
>only. (2) If monovision wasn’t
>right for me after procedure, could
>I at later time have second
>untouched eye (left eye) only worked
>on, again paying for one eye
>only? (3) Currently I read
>and perform computer work perfectly without
>any glasses. That is great and
>convenient. If I get monovision,
>is it likely I could continue
>to read without glasses and also
>see distance without glasses. I
>am 46 male, who enjoys outdoor
>sports (golf and target shooting especially).
>
I have advocated monovision for patients like you for years with first contact lensec, than Radial Keratotomy, then PRK and now LASIK with the Intralase to create the flap. You are potentially an ideal candidate and you may only have to have the surgery on the dominant eye. If you currently have contact lenses, try wearing only one contact in your dominant eye (usually the one you would focus a camera with or possibly the one you sight with for target shooting). We never do it without demonstrating it with contact lenses first. You may not be comfortable with no surgery on your non-dominant eye because the difference between eyews will be over 2 Diopters and not everyone will feel comfortable with that. You most likely could tolerate the full distance correction in your dominant eye and then about 50% correction in the other eye leaving you at about -1 to -1.25 D. For sports like golf, you will probably be fine and if not you can just wear a sunglass that corrects the reading eye. You need to have a contact lens trial demonstrating the possibilities so make sure it works for you and if you like it then you should do well with surgery. Just do it one eye at a time (see my website at www.drsalz.com for the reasons. You can always do the second eye later for either a partial correction which will give you reasonable reading vision through your 40's but eventually you will need some help with reading. If you never operate your non dominant eye you will probably never need reading glasses.
Dr. Salz

You will be fitted with contact lenses to try out mono vision first. Have you ever wore them? If your eye is too dry to do so, this unfortunately wont make you a good lasik candidate. With your pescription youd be 20/150 or so. Do you do alot of close up seeing? If so youd be exchanging your dependacy from distance to reading glasses.