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Questions have arisen about when to use translucent occlusion of a spectacle
lens.
1. If you can't control diplopia with prisms and it continues to be annoying,
and if it is truly double vision and not just blurred vision in each eye
alone, covering either eye will resolve the problem. This is instead of a
prism or when a prism stops working.

2.  I find patients are more comfortable with putting translucent tape over
one eye than wearing a patch. Micropore surgical tape 2 inches wide is ideal,
or wide scotch tape carefully applied so there is no annoying seam.  Cover
the entirety of the lens where the problem is, i.e., if you only have double
vision at near [reading], just tape the reading glasses or the small bifocal
segment used to read [that is, if you insist upon bifocals.]

3.  In most patients, even left handed patients, the right eye is preferred
to fixation. Therefore, in giving general advise to a large group, I say to
cover the inside of the left spectacle lens -- I really mean the lens of the
non-dominant eye.

Jacquie Winterkorn, MD