At Vision Development Center of Lancaster, we often get asked: “Why do my eyes hurt?”
We care about not only finding answers and providing the right kind of vision therapy, but also about educating on why you or your child may be experiencing a difficulty and how to prevent visual and optical issues whenever possible.
A painful eye can produce various sensations and associated symptoms, such as a sharp, stabbing sensation, a burning sensation, throbbing, a dull ache, or a “foreign body sensation” (a feeling something is “in” your eye). All this can help your eye doctor determine the cause of your discomfort.
While the cause for eye pain can be attributed to a number of different reasons, essentially there are three main ones why someone’s eye(s) hurt:
Pathology-related Eye-Pain
A variety of pathological issues can cause eye pain, including an infection, inflammation or high eye pressure.
Dry Eye
Dry eye is a condition in which a person doesn’t have enough quality tears to lubricate and nourish the eye, as defined by the American Optometric Association. This means that a person either does not produce enough tears, or the tears are of poor quality, which may cause him or her to experience irritated, gritty, scratchy or burning eyes.
A Functional Vision Problem
Functional vision is how your entire visual system, which includes the eyes, the brain, the visual pathways, work together to help you interact with your environment.
The skill areas that functional vision includes are eye teaming, eye focusing, and eye movement.
Functional vision problems that cause eye pain are often undetected, and typically involve poor eye teaming and eye focusing.
Eye pain can be experienced in different areas of your eyes. If you experience eye pain that feels like it’s at the back of your eyes or behind your eyes, it could be the result of an undetected functional vision problem.
One of the reasons could be that your eyes are working too hard to focus on a nearby object. For instance, looking at a book or a computer screen requires the muscles in your focusing system to contract to bring the object of viewing into focus.
If your focusing system does not work efficiently, the extra effort required to bring the object into focus could cause you to have a sensation of pain, which you can feel in or behind your eyes, or even on your forehead.
Your eyes can hurt when you are fatigued, as your focusing system may not work as efficiently as when you are well rested, potentially leading to pain.
If your eyes hurt when you wear glasses, visit your optometrist to determine if you have the correct prescription.
If you or your child have eye teaming issues, it’s possible that you may be experiencing sensitivity to light. One theory is that your brain is having trouble “organizing” the light, pioneered by Dr. John Streff, who said, “Glare is light you cannot organize or ignore”.
As far as what you can do to correct the issue that may be causing the eye pain, in cases of eye pathology or dry eye, we recommend that you see a primary care optometrist.
If the issue is an undetected functional vision problem, take steps to see a developmental optometrist.
Eye pain of any type should not be ignored, so If you or your loved one are experiencing eye pain, it’s best you see an eye doctor as soon as you can.
A Functional Vision Test is far more comprehensive than standard vision screenings found at schools and in pediatricians’ offices, and is designed specifically for the vision problems we talked about. If functional vision problem exists, treatment may include a glasses prescription and/or vision therapy.
At Vision Development Center of Lancaster, we offer programs designed to address very specific sets of vision disorders displayed by an individual patient, and our vision therapy techniques can benefit both children and adults.
If you’re searching for ADHD/ADD doctors and developmental optometrists in Lancaster PA or vision therapy techniques and alternative treatments – we invite you to begin the journey to better health and quality of life today – call our office at (717) 656-0534 to make an appointment, or click here to take our free symptoms survey.