Many people who suffer from chronic dizziness and nausea, blurred vision and other related symptoms feel like they have no other choice than to turn to prescription drugs to receive relief from their symptoms. While such physical symptoms by themselves are bad enough, a number of these individuals also experience deep-seated anxiety brought on by the uncertainty of not knowing when and where their next dizzy spell is going to strike. While taking anti-anxiety medication can help, it doesn’t get to the root of the problem by addressing the underlying dizziness. In a lot of cases, their answer may not lie with medication, but rather a pair of aligning micro-prism lenses from Vision Specialists of Michigan.
In general, long-term use of prescription medications should be avoided whenever possible. Before turning to – or continuing – a regimen of anti-anxiety medications or other drugs, consider consulting an eye specialist at Vision Specialists of Michigan. Our doctors can help determine if your dizziness or anxiety stems from a visual impairment known as vertical heterophoria (VH), which can be treated with custom glasses.
The Basics of Vertical Heterophoria
The visual problems that most people are familiar with (nearsighted, farsighted, astigmatism) are usually the result of refractive errors that occur when the eyes are irregularly shaped. These errors are easily corrected with a standard pair of eyeglasses or contact lenses. VH, on the other hand, is caused by a misalignment of the eyes rather than a refractive issue. When the eyes don’t line up perfectly, the images seen by each eye don’t line up perfectly, which can cause you to see blurred or shadowed images. The brain is able to automatically correct this problem but, as a result, the eyes muscles become sore, fatigued and overworked in the effort to maintain alignment.
It is when these muscles are at their most overused and fatigued that troubling physical symptoms can arise, such as blurred, shadowed or double vision, anxiety, dizziness and balance issues. Fortunately, these problems can be corrected, though not with a traditional pair of eyeglasses. Instead, VH is best treated with a special pair of glasses with aligning micro-prism lenses.
Using Prismatic Lenses to Treat VH
When light passes through a prism, the light changes direction. Were you to hold a prism up to your eye, it would move the images that you see. By maneuvering the prisms found in aligning prismatic lenses, our doctors are able to move the images from each eye to the correct spot, bringing them into alignment with each other. Once the images are aligned by the prism lenses, the eye muscles are no longer needed for alignment and are able to relax again, substantially reducing and sometimes even eliminating the symptoms of VH, and often minimizing or eliminating the need for medication.If shadowed or double vision, dizziness or anxiety are making your life miserable, stop what you’re doing and call Vision Specialists of Michigan today at (248) 258-9000 or complete our online BVD questionnaire. Don’t let vertical heterophoria affect your life a moment longer!
