Your doctor has fit a patient with monovision lenses. What does that mean?

• A. Two lenses for far
• B. One eye uses a near lens and the other uses a far lens
• C. Lenses are identical
• D. One lens for distance and one for near in same eye

Answer: (B)

Monovision means each eye is corrected differently so you have both distance and near vision. One eye is set for distance, while the other is corrected for near focus. The brain learns to use the appropriate eye depending on what you’re looking at, which can reduce dependence on reading glasses. This approach differs from having identical lenses in both eyes, or from placing different focal powers in the same eye (which would be a multifocal correction). In practice, the dominant eye is often tuned for distance and the non-dominant eye for near, though adaptation varies and some people may notice changes in depth perception during the adjustment period.