Seeing two images in one or two of your eyes is abnormal. It may often be a more severe condition than you may think. Generally, you may know that you have double vision and that you need to seek immediate medical attention. Read on to learn more about double vision and its symptoms.

What Is Double Vision?

Double vision is seeing two images of the same object adjacent to each other either vertically, horizontally, or obliquely. They can also overlap each other. Double vision has a medical term called diplopia. Perceiving three or more images overlapping each other from looking at one object is polyopia.

Monocular is when one eye perceives a double image from one object. Binocular double vision is when both eyes see it as double but see one when tested alone.

Causes Of Double Vision

Each eye must work individually to create an image of what it sees. The brain combines this from each eye and perceives them into a single clear one. Thus, the eyes need to work together to perceive depth. If anything disrupts this, you experience diplopia. Muscle or nerve damage can cause this disruption.

Some conditions can affect the muscles that move the eyes and cause you to experience double vision. Any damage to the nerves or muscles controlling eye movements can result in diplopia. Damage to parts of the eye like the cornea or lens can result in double vision.

Monocular double vision often occurs due to nearsightedness or farsightedness in one eye. It can also develop if the cornea or retina in one eye has abnormalities. Injuries can cause diplopia. Severe head injury can damage your eye alignment, nerves, and muscles. Injury to the face or a black eye can bruise the area around your eye. As a result, the injured eye can experience double vision.

Some conditions such as thyroid dysfunction, stroke, diabetes, or aneurysm can lead to double vision.

Symptoms Of Double Vision

You will notice the following symptoms if you have double vision:

·      Squinting.

·      Looking sideways at objects

·      Droopy eyelids.

·      Headache.

·      Pain when moving your eye.

·      Wandering eye.

·      Pain in your eyebrows or temples.

·      Nausea.

·      Dizziness.

·      Blurred vision.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing monocular or binocular double vision is straightforward. However, determining the cause of diplopia is often the hard part. Your vision experiences and symptoms will aid your eye specialist in making a diagnosis. Your eye doctor will take note of the symptoms you have during your first visit. They will also look for additional vision problems by performing several tests.

Once they establish that you have double vision, they will begin looking for its cause. Your doctor will take stock of your health status to update your health history. They will also perform a physical examination to identify the possible causes of diplopia.

It will entail dilated eye exams, vision checks, toxicity tests, and eye movement tests. It will also include blood sugar readings, imaging tests, and blood tests to check if you have an infection.

Treatment

Before your doctor decides on the treatment to treat your symptoms, they first must get the cause of the problem. In most cases, vision problems end once the root cause gets treatment or the patient finds vision correction. The most common treatment for double vision is often corrective lenses, eye lenses, or surgery.
For more about double vision, visit Village Optical at our office in New Hyde Park, New York. Call (516) 352-2316 to book an appointment today.