Do you suffer eye strain when you spend long hours at your computer or when you do detail work? Have you tried blue light blocking lenses with little success? Recent studies in vision science have revealed that eye strain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and headaches can be the result of a condition called trigeminal dysphoria, which is caused by a misalignment of your eyes' visual fields. Here are three things that our optometrist at Ritz & Johnson Eyecare Center in Ocala, FL wants you to know about trigeminal neuralgia and the Neurolens system designed to correct it.
What is Trigeminal Dysphoria
Trigeminal dysphoria is a technical term for a condition that occurs when your eyes want to look in one direction but your brain is looking for information in another direction. In trigeminal dysphoria, your central vision and your peripheral vision are not lined up. Ninety percent of people who have this condition experience worse symptoms when they are looking at objects up close, like a phone or a computer screen, than when they are looking at objects that are far away. This makes trigeminal dysphoria a major problem for those who do a lot of detailed, close-up work.
Symptoms of Trigeminal Dysphoria
Not every kind of computer-related eye strain is due to trigeminal dysphoria. If you have this condition, you are likely to be experiencing most of these symptoms:
- Occipital headaches, at the back of your head, on both sides of your head. It's a dull constant pain, rather than a dramatic kind of headache like a migraine.
- Your eyes tend to be dry, itchy, and burning. You may tear up when your eyes hurt, but the tears don't make your eyes feel moist.
- You feel physically fatigued after a day at the computer, even though you haven't done any heavy physical work.
- Your eyes are sensitive to light.
The symptoms of trigeminal dysphoria may be worse when you consume too much caffeine, when hormone levels go up or down, when the weather changes, or when your sleep schedule is disrupted.
Neurolens Corrects the Vision Imbalance That Causes Trigeminal Dysphoria
Neurolens is a graduated prism system that can be added to your eyewear. It corrects the imbalance between your fields of vision and stops symptoms of trigeminal dysphoria. It just takes three minutes to test your eyes to see whether Neurolens will work for you.
Optometrist in Ocala, FL
The optometry professionals at Ritz & Johnson in Ocala are here to help with all of your eye care needs. For more information on Neurolens, computer vision, or to schedule an appointment with our optometrist, call us at (352) 732-7900.