Jessica D wrote:
Hello,

I have been working on a 12 inch tablet (laptop) screen for the last 3.5 years, more significantly in the last year. It is very tiny writing and it is difficult to see. Increasing the font size causes Muskuloskeletal injuries as there is more mousing.

In the last few months, I was experiencing eye strain. I now need a mild glasses rx for far-sightedness and astigmatism in my left eye.

I am 27 years old and have never needed glasses before. Even with the glasses (which are a great help), I still experience eye strain.

Is this normal? Our employer won’t purchase larger monitors and I’m not the only one who is having eyestrain issues.

Thanks

ANSWER

Hello Jessica,
You may be needing a newer, stronger prescription, or you may be working too hard!  Please remember to take frequent “breaks” where you take a minute and look out at a distance.  It will relax your focusing system and prevent you from having a spasm.  I would also recommend you seeing your optometrist to have your binocular vision status checked to ensure that there are no underlying issues that you are unknowingly suffering from.  Also, ensure that you talk to your optometrist about the working distance that you are from your laptop screen, as your current glasses may be inappropriate for the working distance that you need.
Hope this helps.  Good luck to you!
Dr. Donati

Marsha wrote:
I am 43 and have amblyopia. Despite patching & surgery as a child my sight in my “bad” eye is 20/200. I find when I read I get eye strain in my bad eye. My good eye is not quite ready for reading glasses - I find I am tending to look under my glasses to read but 1.0 reading glasses are too strong.

What can I do for the eye strain? Would patching the bad eye help when I’m reading?

Thanks,
Marsha

ANSWER

Dear Marsha
When a person enters their “forties” they usually become aware that they are losing their ability to focus their eyes for near tasks such as reading. Based on the fact that you look under your glasses to read it would appear that you are slightly myopic (nearsighted). If you are in fact nearsighted, as I assume you are, you do not need to focus as strenuously to see things up close when you take off your glasses, or look under them as you are doing. Wearing a pair of +1.00 readers makes your eyes focus even less, and coupled with the benefits of taking off your distance glasses, this may result in an over-correction for your close vision. You might try reading without your glasses and no reading glasses to see if that makes you more comfortable. If it does not, you should consult your optometrist for a thorough assessment to determine what prescription would be most suitable for your needs. I would not recommend patching the bad eye.

Hope this helps.
Dr. Henry Smit

George wrote:
Hi. I’m 26. I have strong astigmatism in one eye and a lot of near-sightedness but little astigmatism in the other. One optometrist has told me, jokingly, that it seems as though my eyes are from two different people. Uncorrected, my left eye is about 20/50, my right eye about 20/100. Supposedly the difference comes from retinal scarring when I was young, but I’ve never been diagnosed with amblyopia.

Here’s my problem: I recently got a pair of glasses from my ophthalmologist that drive me nuts. There’s a feeling of constant tenseness, and I have a hard time maintaining an awareness of things with my peripheral vision, and when I go into busy interior areas, such as a grocery store, I become very confused. My concentration suffers, for instance, and I jarringly lose track of thoughts whenever I shift my eyes to refocus. Reading is also difficult. I told all of these things to the doctor when I went in for a recheck. He said I would get used to the new prescription, and I have not.

I noticed that that the image I’m getting on the left side is squat (from the astigmatism correction) and the right eye is tall and skinny and distorts heavily toward the left and right edges. When I insisted on the difficulty with this prescription, suggesting that the squatness on the left could be causing my discomfort, my ophthalmologist said that he had indeed added an additional dioptre of astigmatism correction, and he could remove it if I wanted, at the cost of sharpness.

There are three things keeping me from having confidence in that solution: 1) It originally came from ME and not from my doctor, who other than shine a light in my eyes performed no tests for binocularity or refractive difference, so I suspect that he’s not properly examining my eyes, merely relying on my last prescription. 2) For about the 8 months leading up to my current prescription, I did not use glasses at all. I performed a lot of high-stress public-speaking related tasks and got very used to squinting and functioning without glasses. 3) I have a very old prescription, from a different doctor, that causes none of the symptoms I described above and is much, much easier to read with.

My question is this: I have no insurance so visits can be expensive. I see a few courses of action: 1) return to my ophthalmologist and request a comprehensive eye exam, telling him about the old prescription and reiterating that I went without glasses for 8 months. 2) Get a comprehensive eye exam from somebody else, and if so, would it be better to go to an optometrist, an ophthalmologist, or an orthoptist?

Before I do anything at all, I’d also like to know what an optometrist thinks might be going on.

Thanks so much!

ANSWER

You mention not using your glasses for 8 months, and I hope this means that you do not drive. Changes in Astigmatism correction can cause the distortion that you are describing. I would suggest a new exam, and I would suggest that you see an Optometrist as these doctors are trained very thoroughly in the determination of the best possible and most comfortable lenses for your glasses.  Explain the problem to the new Optometrist and bring along all of your glasses.

Dr. Joan Hansen - Optometrist, CAO

Beth wrote:
My new optometrist thought that my previous prescription was much too strong for my eyes. She gave me a contacts prescription that is less strong, but I decided to keep my eyeglasses (the older, stronger prescription) and save money on changing them too.

Is there harm in having two different prescriptions? I usually wear my glasses at night for reading.

Thank you!
Beth

ANSWER

Hello Beth,
Wearing a stronger prescription will not cause your eyes to “get worse”, but can result in eye strain.  Symptoms of strain include blurry vision, headaches, fatigue, and/or feelings of pressure/tightening around the eyes.  I would advise that you avoid this problem by updating the glasses as well.
Dr. Donati

Karen wrote:
Is it common for the axis to change significantly from one eyeglass prescription to the next?  I recently received a new prescription (not because I couldn’t see well with existing lenses, but because I wanted to update frames).  Despite trying two different types of lenses with the new prescription, I experience increasing eyestrain the more I wear them to the point I can barely stand keeping my eyes open.  The left eye in particular feels like the muscles inside are twisted/tense, and I get stabbing pains and a constant tired ache.

The axis numbers on my old (comfortable) prescription are:  OD 15, OS 140. The axis numbers on my new (painful) prescription are:  OD 108, OS 052

It almost seems to me these numbers have been accidentally swapped.  Would looking through lenses with incorrect axis cause the many symptoms of unaccustomed and almost unbearable eyestrain I’m experiencing?

ANSWER

Karen,

A huge change in axis would cause discomfort.  However, there are two different ways of writing a prescription when it has axis, and these differences will make the axis seem VERY different.  Was it the same doctor who wrote the two prescriptions?  Does  one prescription have the cylinder lens as a (-) lens and the other as a (+) lens??   If you could give me some more information, it would help tremendously.  Otherwise go back to your doctor and ask for more details and also outline the problems you are having.

Dr. Joan Hansen, Optometrist for CAO

Kyle wrote:
I just purchased a new pair of glasses with my most recent prescription. It made me really dizzy at first and currently I get eye strain after a few hours of continuously wearing them.
Based on my research, it appears that my new prescription is overcorrected.
Is this a bad thing?  Will my eyes adjust?  It’s been about a week.  Below I have listed my current prescription and the prescription I had on my last pair of glasses.  The change appears to be minimal.  Will my eyes experience any permanent damage from the overcorrection?

Thanks!
Kyle

Recent Prescription (7/22/2008):
OD: -8.75 (sphere) -0.75 (Cylinder)
OS: -9.00 (sphere) -1.50 (Cylinder)

Older Prescription (7/12/2007):
OD: -8.50 (sphere) -0.50 (Cylinder)
OS: -8.50 (sphere) -1.50 (Cylinder)

ANSWER

Kyle,
The symptoms you described could be related, as you said, to overcorrection. However, in the light of the information you’ve given, it is probably not the case. Two other factors can come in play: optical distortions or base curve selection
1)     Optical distortion: when a pair of glasses is cut and edged to be fitted in a frame it is possible that the lens was made slightly too big for the frame. The technician can squeeze the lens in the frame to fit it. However, this could create optical distortion and lead to dizziness, blurred vision, etc. This has to be ruled out.
2)     Base curve selection: This is the curve of the front surface of your glasses. Considering your prescription a change in this curve from your old to your new prescription can cause some visual disturbance. If the lens is made with a flatter base curve (usually, to reduce the thickness of your glasses) or if the characteristics of the material is different (index, aspheric vs. non-aspheric glasses) – this could also induce the symptoms you have.
After 7-10 days if the problem is not resolved, go back to where your purchase your glasses in order for them to check these details. In my opinion this is not a problem of overcorrection but an optical problem related to the manufacturing, fitting, edging of the lenses or the choice of the material to make them.
This will not harm your eyes on a long term but only cause you discomfort. Do not tolerate this, it is not normal.

Good luck
Langis Michaud

Craig Macdonald wrote:

When I wear safety glasses for prolonged periods, I get headaches and my eyes feel like they are going to pop out of my head. I don’t wear glasses or contacts. Can the experience of looking through plastic lenses be the cause? If so, can I be putting myself at risk of having to wear glasses in the future by straining my eyes?

ANSWER

Hi Craig,

Visual fatigue or eye strain is not uncommon when wearing non prescription “off the shelf” products of this type. The optical quality of many of these products is poor, and is probably the cause of the your discomfort.

It is unlikely that you will do permanent damage or suffer any long term effects from wearing these protective glasses but my advice would be to try a few different brands/styles of glasses and try and determine if one is better than another.

Suzanne Aldridge wrote:

I had Lasik surgery 14 months ago and had to have an enhancement 1 year ago in one eye. Ever since the first treatment, I have suffered every day with terrible, debilitating eyestrain, which comes on after a few minutes of driving and also when I walk around shops. I have been back to the opticians, the surgeon and now the hospital. Nobody seems to know what is causing this or what I can do about it. I’m desperate for some help as it is ruining my life. Can anyone offer help?

Many thanks.

ANSWER

Suzanne,

It is impossible to know what is happening without examining your eyes.  I would suggest that you have a different eye doctor (Optometrist) examine them, making sure that you explain the past procedures.  If possible, please also provide the new Optometrist with information about your eyes prior to LASIK - bring along an old prescription or old glasses, or even your pre-op information that your previous eye doctor sent to the laser surgeon.

Pippa Esquaval wrote:
I have a prescription of -2.5- -05.50 x 140 and -1.50. I wear for distance but get eyestrain when not wearing glasses. How much would an optometrist recommend wearing such a prescription?
Thanks.

ANSWER

Dear Pippa,
It appears that the prescription in your right eye is stronger than in the left. This means that if you do not wear glasses, your eyes will not be in focus, both at the same time. This often causes eyestrain. Hence, I would suggest that since you experience eyestrain when not wearing the glasses, that you wear the glasses on a full time basis, or at least as much as you need to eliminate your symptoms.
Dr. Henry Smit