One Contact Lense Instead of Reading Glasses

[Cacia]

If you are thinking about trying it, do it! I never have reading glasses anywhere I am and I finally wandered into Costco eye doctor and the whole thing took 15 minutes!
Talk about an inexpensive, easy solution....wish I had done this a long time ago.

Reading ingredients on food items was the kicker that finally sent me over the edge looking for a solution. I haven't dived with it yet, can't wait to see if my macro phtography improves. Also, maybe I'll shoot manual yet.

 

[60feet]

Interesting concept, Catherine. Not that I need reading contact lenses yet , but just curious. Do you alternate using that one contact lens between eyes, i.e. in left eye some days, and in right eye on other days? Otherwise, wouldn't the chosen eye for the lens be affected more than the other over time? Using it for macro UW photography is quite a creative thought!

 

[Darnold9999]

Works like a charm, I have surface contacts and diving contacts. Don't need to see beyond 20 feet here anyway.

Actually it works out to about 60 feet or so so can't see signals from the boat, but I warn divemasters on the baot before I go in - so they don't think I'm ignoring them.

 

[D_B]

I had the same problem with my contacts when diving, normally I have trouble reading my gages with them because they are so strong (-6.5) .. now I put in less power ones overall, and a much less one in my right eye (-5.25 in left eye -4.25 in right) ... now I can see close up, and far away!
Some people are fine with having differing vision in each eye (called Mono-vision, one eye for close up, other for distance) and you do still have depth perception, it's not like having one eye closed (actually, my glasses are set up this way, but only slightly less power in right eye )

 

[Cacia]

Do you alternate using that one contact lens between eyes,

The doctor asked me "which is your dominate eye?" and I said "I don't know, do I have one?" and she asked which eye do you use on your camera viewfinder...she then gave me a test where I was to signal spotting a square inside a box. With my dominate eye, I saw it, with the left, I did not. So, the contact for "reading" goes in the left eye and I can see fine far away and still read up close. It's a little bit funny at first, and after an hour your brain gets used to it and compensates. At least I haven't smashed my car up yet trying to park!

They can do a CK surgery on one eye to mimic this approach but all the eye docs i know have advised me to wait...they just aren't "there yet" the way they clearly are for Lasix. With the contact lense option, I'm not sure why I would go through the cost, risk, etc of the surgery. It's not like I can't see without the lense, it just makes reading phone books and gauges much better.

With the exam being 60 and the lenses really cheap for a whole box, I can save the funds for a facelift or something more worthwhile. For me, this was a lotta cluck for the buck.

 

[60feet]

... With my dominate eye, I saw it, with the left, I did not. So, the contact for "reading" goes in the left eye and I can see fine far away and still read up close...

Having the reading contact lens in the non-dominant eye makes total sense to me. I also completely agree with the non-surgical approach. Not only is it alot cheaper (contact lenses are so inexpensive now to compete with lasik), it's also easily reversable anytime you want by just taking out the contact lens. Hmmm... this something I definitely should keep in mind in the future. Thanks for posting this idea, Catherine. Aloha.

 

[stevephilanyc]

I used monovision contact lenses for years with my right (dominant) eye seeing far and my left eye for reading. Being able to read my gauges was the primary reason I gave up reading glasses with contacts to see far and close. About 3 years ago I had laser surgery so I'm now doing monovision without the contacts. I'd recommend anyone having trouble reading underwater try monovision contacts. It worked very well for me.

Steve

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

My eye doctor tried this on me, it didn't work out. The vision in my non-dominant eye has just gotten too poor for this to work. Biocals without lines are my best answer, followed by distance vision contacts with a pair of reading glasses handy.