Do You Suffer From An Eye Strain Headache?

It may be your eyes:

Do You Suffer From An Eye Strain Headache?

It may be your eyes:

Anyone who has experienced a headache knows that it can be extremely uncomfortable. Even if the headache is considered to be mild, it can prevent you from going to work or running errands and completely disrupt your day (if not your week depending on how long it lasts).

A common cause of headaches is actually eye strain.

How Can Eye Strain Cause Headaches?

When our eye muscles are working harder than they should, they get sore and tired. This leads to headaches that often require rest in order to feel relief. However since the issue is often caused by the eyes over straining, the headaches return once the individual attempts to perform daily tasks again (such as reading, looking at their phone, watching TV, or even driving).

While eye strain is often accompanied by headaches, you might also feel like you have very sore eyes, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, difficulty concentrating, or even neck and shoulder pain.

Can Bad Vision Cause Headaches? The Link to Binocular Vision Dysfunction

When someone experiences eye strain that is causing headaches, the big question is this: Why are their eyes straining to begin with?

Oftentimes the reason is due to a very subtle misalignment between the eyes. A great amount of strain is placed on the eye muscles while they attempt to realign the eyes and prevent double vision, leading to severe headaches and eye pain. This is known as Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD).

With BVD, the two eyes have difficulty working smoothly together as a team due to a slight misalignment. While this misalignment can be very subtle, it can make it incredibly difficult for our brain to create one clear image from the images seen by our two eyes.

In people without BVD, their brain is able to transform the images seen by each eye into a single image, which is known as binocular vision. When someone has BVD, there is a slight misalignment between their two eyes resulting in their eyes being out of sync with one another, causing the brain to have a very difficult time processing these two slightly out-of-alignment images to form one clear image.

The result? The brain forces the eye aligning muscles to fix the problem by realigning the eyes. Over time, this places an immense amount of strain on the eye muscles and leads to headaches, dizziness and difficulty reading, as well as a variety of other symptoms.

Do you have Binocular Vision Dysfunction?

Common Symptoms for Adults with Binocular Vision Dysfunction

The following is a list of common symptoms in adults with BVD:

  • Headaches
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea
  • Anxiety
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Difficulty with balance / unsteady walking
  • Pain in the neck
  • Frequent head tilt
  • Motion sickness
  • Difficulty reading and learning

Are your symptoms caused by BVD?

Headache and Eye Strain: How Do You Fix BVD?

BVD is treated by correcting the eye misalignment using microprism lenses. These glasses bend light in a way that the images seen by your eyes are moved into the position they need to be in, resulting in realigned images. When the images seen by your two eyes are realigned, your brain can easily transform them into one, singular image. Your headache and nausea and other uncomfortable symptoms caused by BVD are significantly reduced or eliminated.

In fact, the average patient will notice a 50% reduction of symptoms by the end of their first visit. Over the next several visits, our team at Vision Specialists of Michigan will fine-tune your lenses so that your headache, nausea and other BVD symptoms can continue to improve and be eliminated.

Get Treatment for Your Eye Strain Headache

If you or a loved one are experiencing eye strain headaches or other symptoms mentioned above, contact our team at Vision Specialists of Michigan. If BVD is causing your visual symptoms, our microprism lenses just might be the solution you need.

Get treatment today.

Headache and Eye Strain: Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, poor eyesight can cause headaches. In fact eye problems and headaches are usually linked to one another. When our eyes are forced to strain, the muscles surrounding the eyes become overused, achy and/or painful. This can lead to uncomfortable symptoms including headaches caused by eye strain.

The symptoms of eye strain can include severe headaches. There are multiple types of headaches, including migraines, tension headaches, and cluster headaches. When the eyes cause a headache, it can range from mild to severe pain.

Eyes that are slightly misaligned (also known as BVD) results in the eye muscles having to work harder than they should in an effort to realign and prevent double vision. The result is painful headaches from eye strain (as well as a host of other symptoms including dizziness and nausea).

If the cause of your eye strain headaches or eye strain migraine is Binocular Vision Dysfunction, our microprism lenses can address and eliminate your symptoms. To find out if BVD might be the cause of your eye strain, Take the Test.

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It may be your eyes

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It may be your eyes

  • American Academy Optometry
  • American Optometric Association
  • Michigan Optometric Association
  • VEDA
  • Neuro Optometry Rehabilitation Association

Dr. Sandy DiPonio earned her optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in 1996. She is a highly skilled and experienced eye care professional dedicated to giving her patients of all ages excellent and compassionate care. She has a wide variety of experience in binocular vision, pediatric and adult eye care, ocular disease and contact lens fitting. She strives to provide each of her patients the best quality of life they can achieve with their vision through knowledge and education of treatment options.

Dr. DiPonio is a member of the American Optometric Society and Michigan Optometric Society.

Dr. Sally Hoey has been practicing optometry since graduating from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001. During her time in optometry school, she developed an interest in binocular vision, culminating in a senior thesis involving binocular vision.

Prior to joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, Dr. Hoey specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of vision-related learning problems as well as other binocular vision disorders. Her other areas of interest include specialty contact lens fittings and treating dry eye. Dr. Hoey strives to provide her patients with clear, comfortable vision while meeting their individual needs at the same time.

Dr. Hoey had the opportunity to provide eye care on an optometric mission trip to Guyana, South America and vision screenings at a local medical clinic. She is a member of the American Optometric Association, Michigan Optometric Association, Metropolitan Detroit Optometric Society and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Dr. Jennifer Place graduated with honors from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001.

Before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, she specialized in treating pediatric and adult patients with binocular vision disorders and vision-related learning problems, as well as fitting specialty contact lenses and managing various types of ocular disease. She enjoys working with patients with unique visual needs, and she takes great pride in providing all patients with highly customized care.

Dr. Place has volunteered for Opening Eyes, a program that provides eye exams to the athletes of the Michigan Special Olympics, and she participated in an international mission to St. Lucia to provide eye care to those in need. Dr. Place is a member of the Detroit Optometric Society, the Michigan Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the College of Vision Development, and the Optometric Extension Program Foundation.

Dr. Mary Jo Ference has been practicing optometry since 1990 upon graduating from Ferris State University- Michigan College of Optometry, and is certified in Low Vision Rehabilitation. She has worked at Sinai-Grace Hospital systems for over 20 years before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan in 2013 to work with binocular vision disorders. Her clinical areas of expertise include visual rehabilitation of pediatric and adult patients who have suffered from brain trauma, injury or disease. She has taught both optometry and ophthalmology residents at Sinai Grace Hospital. Dr. Ference has sat on numerous boards, including Sinai Grace Hospital, Berry Out-Patient Surgical Center, and Seedlings Braille Books for the Blind. She is actively involved in area school districts to provide education, training and access for students, teachers, OT’s and PT’s to eye care service rehabilitation information. Dr. Ference has lectured extensively nationally and internationally.

Dr. Debby Feinberg began practicing Optometry in Oakland County in 1983, upon graduating from Illinois College of Optometry. She joined her father, Dr. Paul C. Feinberg, at Mall Optical Center, which was located in Summit Place Mall.

Since 1995 Dr. Feinberg has been developing the field of NeuroVisual Medicine which is the optometric subspecialty that identifies and treats neurological / medical symptoms that originate directly or indirectly in the visual system.

Dr. Feinberg has been performing pioneering work with Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD), a condition where a vision misalignment (frequently subtle) creates difficulties with the two eyes working together to create a single 3-dimensional image, and difficulties with the two eyes following that image as it moves.

The symptoms caused by BVD are not usually associated with problems with the visual system, and include headache, dizziness, anxiety and panic, persistent post-concussive symptoms, gait instability and balance problems, frequent falls, neck pain, motion sickness, nausea, and reading and learning problems.

In 2004. Dr. Feinberg established Vision Specialists of Birmingham, specifically designing the practice to accommodate the needs of the NeuroVisual Medicine patient.

In 2011, the office moved to its current location in Bloomfield Hills and updated its name to Vision Specialists of Michigan.