Double vision, sometimes referred to by its medical term “diplopia”, can occur due to several reasons. The LASIK surgeon in Orange County says that it can sometimes be difficult to find the exact cause of a patient’s double vision. A few potential causes for double vision that the LASIK Orange County clinic like Excel Laser Vision Institute has come across are diabetes, weak eye muscles, an invisible bacterium in the eyes, a pinched nerve in the eye resulting from an injury, Graves’ Disease, a childhood squint, alcohol, and digital vision syndrome.
What Is Double Vision?
Double vision or diplopia is a condition in which a person sees images and text in double formation. Dr. Ferzaad Moosa, a LASIK surgeon in Orange County explains that the person usually sees the images or text overlap with one another. They can also look separate, to some extent, which makes it seem as if there are two objects when there is only one in reality.
Needless to say, double vision is a very irritating and troublesome condition since it makes it challenging to focus clearly.
Can LASIK Eye Surgery Help Double Vision?
A frequent question that people will ask the LASIK surgeon in Orange County is if LASIK eye surgery can help to alleviate a person’s double vision condition. There are many double vision corrective surgery options. So, before someone undergoes a surgery, the initial and most important step is to investigate the underlying causes of the double vision.
Even though double vision affects a person’s ability to see clearly, it normally isn’t treatable with LASIK. Normally, laser eye surgery is used to improve a person’s visual acuity by operating on refractive errors such as myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism.
What Are The Causes Of Double Vision?
As mentioned above, double vision can be caused due to various underlying conditions and issues. Some of the more common ones include the following:
Muscle and Nerve Disorders: Occasionally, a person may be suffering a muscle and/or nerve disorder in the eye that can result in double vision because of misalignment. There are various ways to treat this condition, and sometimes surgery may be required for realignment.
Astigmatism: People who suffer from astigmatism might experience double vision. This could be because of abnormalities in the lens of the cornea as a result of not being shaped correctly. Laser eye surgery could, in this case, treat the imperfections in the eye and reconstruct the shape to fix double vision.
Medical Conditions: There are many medical conditions that could, if they are not managed appropriately, result in diplopia. These include, and are not limited to, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, stroke, brain tumor, and aneurysm. When doctors are able to treat these specific medical conditions, it could help to resolve a person’s issues with double vision.
Cataracts: When cataracts begin to develop in the eye, the lens becomes cloudy. The refractive angle of the eye can be obstructed in such a way that it results in double vision. A few people may notice that they only have diplopia in one eye, when their cataracts are developing at various intervals. Unfortunately, there are cases of people who have experienced double vision in both eyes if their cataracts are developing at the same rate of time.
Eye Infections: If you have pink eye (conjunctivitis) or some other form of eye infection, you may be experiencing double vision. In this case, your eye doctor would not likely recommend eye surgery. Instead, he or she will prescribe eye drops to eliminate the infection.
Eye Injuries: If you have injured your eye from sports, an accident, or any other reason, you may see double vision for a brief period of time afterward. The best thing you can do is to seek medical treatment from a qualified eye doctor to make sure that your retina has not become detached. If it has, then you will probably need retinal reattachment surgery.
As mentioned above, getting down to the nuts and bolts of double vision is necessary to figure out the best treatment. In cases where the condition is a result of astigmatism or cataracts, then visiting a well-trained laser eye surgeon such as Dr. Ferzaad Moosa would be the next best step. This eye surgeon will help you decide which procedure would be best for you to achieve better eye health and vision.
What Is The Age Limit For LASIK For Double Vision?
When you are discussing your double vision with your eye doctor, he or she will let you know that LASIK for double vision issues is only applicable if you have astigmatism and are between 19 and 40 years of age.
After people pass the age of 40, their eyes slowly begin to alter and affect vision a lot more than before. In some instances, where double vision is because of cataracts, LASIK would not be the most suitable form of treatment.
Your eye surgeon would, instead, have to replace the cloudy natural lenses of the eyes with Intraocular Lenses (IOLs). IOLs are a form of implantable contact lenses that help to bring back a person’s vision after the cataracts are removed and will also eventually solve the issue with double vision.
Make Sure You Need LASIK
If you have started to experience double vision, you should begin by removing all the potential causes from the scenario. This means reducing the amount of alcohol you consume and minimizing digital screen time.
If the problem does not go away, get in touch with your doctor to investigate if there is an underlying cause that is instigating your double vision.
In a majority of cases, double vision can be treated with simple home remedies. For example, if you are suffering from invisible bacteria, you should let your eyes rest, use a hot compress, and administer lubricating eye drops.
In more exceptional cases, surgical correction may be required. For instance, if you are suffering from a pinched nerve that is a result of an injury, a surgical procedure can be performed to repair the nerve. This kind of procedure does not involve the cornea, which means that laser eye surgery is unnecessary.
If you want further information about various refractive surgeries such as LASIK to improve your eyesight, give the Excel Laser Vision Institute a call at + (818) 907-8606. Our expert team of highly trained refractive surgeons can guide you step-by-step to the laser eye surgery that best suits you!
