Aa
Monovision surgery for athlete
hi, I am 52 and very active in tennis. Is monovision surgery an option for me? It seems depth perception would be a problem. Thanks for any help.
re: "don't wear glasses to drive at night but maybe I should"
Obviously it is better to be safe than sorry and wear correction if you aren't sure you are safe without it. I would suggest talking to your eye doctor about that, they may be able to test your night vision or perhaps refer you to someplace that can.
You don't mention which state you are in and the vision guidelines and methods to handle special cases will vary by state (and the equipment used may vary by DMV office). In MA they note:
http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/medical/policies/vision.htm
"Monovision is a method of visual correction (either through surgery or by contact lens) that allows for the use of one eye for distance vision and the other eye for near vision. Some customers with monovision have trouble with the RMV's computerized vision screening. A Vision Screening Certificate (VSC), completed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist and indicating that the customer is visually qualified to safely operate a motor vehicle, can be accepted in place of the computerized vision screening."
Some states like here in Colorado only require 20/40 binocular vision (rather than having a requirement for each eye) so monovision isn't a problem. In some other states it may be depending on how myopic one eye is. In CA for instance it says:
This should have been obvious to me. Lysenkoism, a pseudo-biological theory that plants (and people) could be trained to change their heritable natures, helped starve millions and yet persisted for decades in the Soviet Union, reaching its zenith under Nikita Khrushchev. The theory that dietary fat causes obesity and heart disease, based on a couple of terrible studies in the 1950s, became unchallenged orthodoxy and is only now fading slowly.
What these two ideas have in common is that they had political support, which enabled them to monopolise debate. Scientists are just as prone as anybody else to “confirmation bias”, the tendency we all have to seek evidence that supports our favoured hypothesis and dismiss evidence that contradicts it—as if we were counsel for the defence. It’s tosh that scientists always try to disprove their own theories, as they sometimes claim, and nor should they. But they do try to disprove each other’s. Science has always been decentralised, so Professor Smith challenges Professor Jones’s claims, and that’s what keeps science honest.
What went wrong with Lysenko and dietary fat was that in each case a monopoly was established. Lysenko’s opponents were imprisoned or killed. Nina Teicholz’s book The Big Fat Surprise shows in devastating detail how opponents of Ancel Keys’s dietary fat hypothesis were starved of grants and frozen out of the debate by an intolerant consensus backed by vested interests, echoed and amplified by a docile press. ...
Cheerleaders for alarm
This is precisely what has happened with the climate debate and it is at risk of damaging the whole reputation of science. "
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffdl14
"Anyone who applies for an original or renewal driver license must meet the department's visual acuity (vision) screening standard. The DMV's vision screening standard is:
20/40 with both eyes tested together, and
20/40 in one eye and at least, 20/70 in the other eye...
Drivers With Monovision
Monovision is one eye treated or untreated for distance by surgery or contact lenses, and one eye treated or untreated for close-up vision. If you have monovision, you may not be able to meet the DMV's vision screening standard."
There is some indication elsewhere on the CA site that you may be able to work around that with an eye doctor's help and a driving test:
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/about/senior/driverlicense/vision
"Monovision - If you have monovision (one eye corrected for distance vision and one eye treated or untreated for close-up vision) and DMV has no record of your vision condition, the DMV employee will give you a Report of Vision Examination (DL 62) and ask you to see your vision specialist. When you return with your completed DL 62, you will be asked to take a Supplemental Driving Performance Evaluation (driving test) to determine if you can drive safely."
What people are more likely to do do in that case is simply wear correction to the DMV vision test to correct for distance vision (which though of course leads to a restriction on the driver's license requiring wearing that correction for driving if you wish to follow the law, regardless of whether your eye doctor considers your vision to good enough to drive safely without correction).
Obviously it is better to be safe than sorry and wear correction if you aren't sure you are safe without it. I would suggest talking to your eye doctor about that, they may be able to test your night vision or perhaps refer you to someplace that can.
You don't mention which state you are in and the vision guidelines and methods to handle special cases will vary by state (and the equipment used may vary by DMV office). In MA they note:
http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/medical/policies/vision.htm
"Monovision is a method of visual correction (either through surgery or by contact lens) that allows for the use of one eye for distance vision and the other eye for near vision. Some customers with monovision have trouble with the RMV's computerized vision screening. A Vision Screening Certificate (VSC), completed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist and indicating that the customer is visually qualified to safely operate a motor vehicle, can be accepted in place of the computerized vision screening."
Some states like here in Colorado only require 20/40 binocular vision (rather than having a requirement for each eye) so monovision isn't a problem. In some other states it may be depending on how myopic one eye is. In CA for instance it says:
This should have been obvious to me. Lysenkoism, a pseudo-biological theory that plants (and people) could be trained to change their heritable natures, helped starve millions and yet persisted for decades in the Soviet Union, reaching its zenith under Nikita Khrushchev. The theory that dietary fat causes obesity and heart disease, based on a couple of terrible studies in the 1950s, became unchallenged orthodoxy and is only now fading slowly.
What these two ideas have in common is that they had political support, which enabled them to monopolise debate. Scientists are just as prone as anybody else to “confirmation bias”, the tendency we all have to seek evidence that supports our favoured hypothesis and dismiss evidence that contradicts it—as if we were counsel for the defence. It’s tosh that scientists always try to disprove their own theories, as they sometimes claim, and nor should they. But they do try to disprove each other’s. Science has always been decentralised, so Professor Smith challenges Professor Jones’s claims, and that’s what keeps science honest.
What went wrong with Lysenko and dietary fat was that in each case a monopoly was established. Lysenko’s opponents were imprisoned or killed. Nina Teicholz’s book The Big Fat Surprise shows in devastating detail how opponents of Ancel Keys’s dietary fat hypothesis were starved of grants and frozen out of the debate by an intolerant consensus backed by vested interests, echoed and amplified by a docile press. ...
Cheerleaders for alarm
This is precisely what has happened with the climate debate and it is at risk of damaging the whole reputation of science. "
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffdl14
"Anyone who applies for an original or renewal driver license must meet the department's visual acuity (vision) screening standard. The DMV's vision screening standard is:
20/40 with both eyes tested together, and
20/40 in one eye and at least, 20/70 in the other eye...
Drivers With Monovision
Monovision is one eye treated or untreated for distance by surgery or contact lenses, and one eye treated or untreated for close-up vision. If you have monovision, you may not be able to meet the DMV's vision screening standard."
There is some indication elsewhere on the CA site that you may be able to work around that with an eye doctor's help and a driving test:
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/about/senior/driverlicense/vision
"Monovision - If you have monovision (one eye corrected for distance vision and one eye treated or untreated for close-up vision) and DMV has no record of your vision condition, the DMV employee will give you a Report of Vision Examination (DL 62) and ask you to see your vision specialist. When you return with your completed DL 62, you will be asked to take a Supplemental Driving Performance Evaluation (driving test) to determine if you can drive safely."
What people are more likely to do do in that case is simply wear correction to the DMV vision test to correct for distance vision (which though of course leads to a restriction on the driver's license requiring wearing that correction for driving if you wish to follow the law, regardless of whether your eye doctor considers your vision to good enough to drive safely without correction).
I too struggled last year, 2014, when I had my license renewed. I had LASIK done in '99, and monovision. I have 20/20 vision at the eye doctor, although of course I wear reading glasses now. but when I take the eye test at the DMV, I do horrible. I'm either doing it wrong or something. When I put my face up to the machine, I think I'm using one eye when I should be using two. I panicked. The lady let me go but she told me I have a problem with my vision. I don't have to actually take the physical test for 11 more years (I can renew online) so I'll be 71 then. But I'll still need my license. I don't wear glasses to drive at night but maybe I should. I just had a thorough eye exam and I have the very beginnings of cataracts but she said it was totally normal for my age (58) so what am I doing wrong when I'm using the machine at the DMV??? and I wonder if I can get a letter from my eye doctor telling them I need to use both eyes for the test, like a wall chart instead of that thing you look into?
Dear Dr Hagan III
I am due for cataract surgery in my right eye. Left eye is fine. I would like to get rid of glasses( I need for driving only) so that I could play tennis better. What implant lens do you recommend? Is ResTore an option? Best regards
Kris Pan
I am due for cataract surgery in my right eye. Left eye is fine. I would like to get rid of glasses( I need for driving only) so that I could play tennis better. What implant lens do you recommend? Is ResTore an option? Best regards
Kris Pan
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I've never been able to figure out how or why they do things as they do in California.
JCH III MD
JCH III MD
Thank you, and bless you for responding to my fears. I truly am relieved and encouraged. I could not imagine how I would get by without my drivers license. Just yesterday my husband had an eye appointment and ask his OD about this. (at the surgery center where his lasic surgery was done) He said that California DMV doesn't recognize monovision, and that his suggestion would be to just tell them that he has a lazy eye??
I will have the glasses made, and be ready with confidence. I knew contacts could not work, and yet I had not uderstood that glasses could work. So thank you again, for both the speedy response, and for this wonderful forum where we can come for help.
I will have the glasses made, and be ready with confidence. I knew contacts could not work, and yet I had not uderstood that glasses could work. So thank you again, for both the speedy response, and for this wonderful forum where we can come for help.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello Terrianne In almost all states you only have to have one eye to drive legally. That is if you had an accident or a disease that destroyed one eye you could still drive without glasses if your vision was 20/40 or 20/50 (varies from state to state) without glasses. If the vision in the eye was worse than 20/50 but corrected with glasses then the person would have to wear glasses to drive.
In your case if your far away eye sees 20/40 or better you should be able to pass the best based on the good distance eye. It makes not one witt if the other eye for reading sees 20/200 at distance. If you have trouble passing the test at the driver's bureau most states will allow your eye surgeon Ophthalmologist to fill the form out if you pass the test in their office.
Most of my monvision patients still have glasses that eye wear for night driving, movies and when they want their best vision with BOTH eyes either to see far away or read up close.
JCH III MD Eye Physician and Surgeon
In your case if your far away eye sees 20/40 or better you should be able to pass the best based on the good distance eye. It makes not one witt if the other eye for reading sees 20/200 at distance. If you have trouble passing the test at the driver's bureau most states will allow your eye surgeon Ophthalmologist to fill the form out if you pass the test in their office.
Most of my monvision patients still have glasses that eye wear for night driving, movies and when they want their best vision with BOTH eyes either to see far away or read up close.
JCH III MD Eye Physician and Surgeon
I have had monovision surgery, and I vote for it. No longer have to wear glasses, only to read the finest print. Distance vision is good. So I would do it again if I had to go back. There is only one fly in the ointment. That is I cannot read the distance chart with both eyes. No one seems to talk about anywhere that I can find. Also the Eye Surgeons seem to not want to address it either, that I have ask. And it is deaming up in front of me before long. How on earth do you pass the drivers test to get your license renewed?
They always have you cover one eye and then the other, for reading the letters chart at a distance. No problem with the distance eye, but I can't read it with the closeup eye!
Does anyone have an answer?
They always have you cover one eye and then the other, for reading the letters chart at a distance. No problem with the distance eye, but I can't read it with the closeup eye!
Does anyone have an answer?
Thanks for commenting. A contact was one of the options suggested. When I first considered surgery, I thought I would have near perfect up close and distance vision. Monovision came from way out in left field. Now I am just trying to get as much info as possible from folks like you.
I really appreciate your thoughts
I really appreciate your thoughts
I'm sure that Dr. Hagan's point is valid. Can you try monovision (or modified monovision) with contact lenses before you take the surgical plunge? Then you'd know exactly how it would affect your game. You might also consider surgical monovision but wear a contact lens or glasses to reverse the monovision when you tennis. (A one-day disposable contact like Acuvue Moist would work quite well for this purpose, and it's extremely comfortable.) That might give you the best of both worlds.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I love to play golf and tennis with people that do monovision. I've made a few house payments off them. Try playing your next tennis match with one eye shut. If you're really serious about tennis, golf, shooting sports, etc. think long an hard before you jump off the deep end with monovision.
JCH III MD Eye Physician and Surgeon
JCH III MD Eye Physician and Surgeon
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