Pain in the eye when wearing glasses - help!

Hi all,

I had a case of eyestrain a couple of months ago, from reading too much
on my PalmPilot (those things are *really* bad for you!). The
eyestrain manifested as pain in my left eye. I am mildly myopic and
astigmatic - something like -1 diopters. Nothing serious. The pain
rather resembled the pain I had when I got a wrong prescription on my
glasses (the PD was off by 10mm - ouch!) - same type of pain in the
same eye.

Unfortunately, ever since that episode, I found I could not wear
glasses for long without the pain recurring. When I go without my
glasses, I do not have pain, even though things are rather blurry and I
see double images with each eye. (and I can't read street signs when I
drive) I went to an eye doctor and got my eyes checked, and she did
not find anything wrong, except for weak accommodative muscles (?).
She prescribed reading glasses (which I haven't received yet - still
waiting for them to be made). She could not explain why my eye hurt,
and why it was only one eye that hurt. I updated my distance
prescription, but the new glasses make my eye hurt too. The vision I
get in those glasses is perfect, btw; I do not think the glasses were
badly made or that the prescription was terribly inaccurate.

So I would like to address the following questions to this august
group: a) What do weak accommodative muscles have to do with eye pain?
b) Am I doing serious damage to my vision by wearing those glasses (or
by wearing any kind of glasses at all)? c) Should I get another eye
exam, and what should I ask the doctor when I do?

I'll be extremely grateful for any advice.

Larisa

 

try wearing glasses just for driving or when you need to see in the
distance. For close work, glasses just strain the eyes as in your
case(and mine too) if you are happier without glasses, then go without
them much of the time

 

Aceman I know you are very enthusiastic and just trying to be helpful
but in this case your 'advice' to Larisa is not correct as she has
astigmatism. We don't know how much astigmatism yet but you have
prematurely jumped to an incorrect conclusion.

Dom

 

Larisa it would be helpful to me and the other optometrists who read
this if you could answer a few questions:

How old are you?

Can you post your optical prescription to this group, including the "Add"?

How would you describe the pain? Sharp or dull? Mild or intense?
Momentary or lasting for hours? Like a headache? Like tired eyes? Pain
located behind your eyes or on the surface?

Dom

 

Sorry about the incomplete information; answers follow. Thanks so
much!

OD: -1.75 spherical, -1.00 cyl, 100 axis (add 0.75 for the reading
glasses)
OS: -0.25 spherical, -1.25 cyl, 100 axis (add 0.75 for the reading
glasses)

It's fairly recent; I had the eye exam done a week ago or so.

Umm... it's kinda sharp, medium intensity (and gets worse the longer I
leave the glasses on). Feels like it's in the middle of the eye,
somehow. In the morning, the eye feels sore and tired (as if I hadn't
slept enough - even when I had). When I take the glasses off, the
problem lessens; if I don't wear glasses for a couple of days, it goes
away.

The weird thing is that it's only one eye - the other eye is fine.
I've even been thinking that I might just take the left lens out of my
glasses for a while.

LM

 

Oh, that's what I'm doing - I don't have a choice at this point, I
don't want to damage anything in my eye, so I'm wearing glasses as
little as possible. Just for driving, at this point, and I take them
off the moment I get out of the car. But I don't know what's going on
with my eye - and that's what scares me. My glasses used to be just
fine, and I could read in them and use them for distance vision, with
no problems. And now I can't; and I'd like to know why.

LM

P.S. And I'm not happier without glasses, alas; I hate it when
everything is blurry. Even if it's a little blurry, as in my case.

 

What is your UCVA in each eye? BCVA? You are nearly plano in the left
eye so maybe it does not need a correction and hence why you feel a
pain in that eye? I have some friends who are nearly plano and glasses
make next to no difference in how clear they see but it causes
eyestrain and gives headaches so they go without glasses and see fine
anyway. I am also thinking maybe the anisomtropia could be a factor.
One of your eyes is considerabily worse than the other. I understand
about the doubling, thats due to astigmastim but your astigmastim is
mild so there isnt much disortion. Perhaps you have presbyopia? You got
bifocals, this should help with the strain. I also cant see clearly
from near unless I remove my glasses or use weaker glasses. How
functional are you without glasses? I wish I could go without glasses
but at -4.5 this isnt close to possible. You have it easy that glasses
for you is optional!

 

And once again Ace makes his diagnosis and saves the world. Stay tuned
for a message from our sponsors.

 

Umm, BCVA is 20/20; I'm not sure what the UCVA is.

The thing is that this was not a problem until the eyestrain. I've
been wearing glasses full-time since the age of 18 or so, and had no
trouble until about 2 months ago. I'm just not sure what it is I did
to myself, and how to undo it.

Yup. I get kind of a "monovision" effect when I'm not wearing glasses;
my left eye is dominant for distance vision and my right eye is
dominant for near vision. Both are somewhat blurry due to the
astigmatism, but I can see well enough like that.

Haven't received the things yet; actually, I just got regular reading
glasses rather than bifocals (I'm too young for bifocals...). But they
haven't arrived yet. The eye doctor did say "weak accommodative
muscles" - I'm not sure it's the same thing as presbyopia (isn't that
due to a stiffening of the lens?), but the effect is the same, I guess.

Well, sure it's optional, but I'm headed for law school (I start in
August). There's lots of reading in my future, and I'm kinda worried
about reading that much without glasses. After about 1 hour or so of
reading without glasses, I start seeing triple.

But yes, I'm rather glad that I am able to function without glasses
right now.

LM

 

maybe you can get glasses that just correct for your astigmastim and
leave the myopia untouched. This will reduce the strain of constantly
accomodating when your becomming presbyopic. By taking care of the
astigmastim you wont see double or triple. Its worth a shot trying this
just correcting for your astigmastim. Your myopia will help you with
all the reading without strain

 

OK so it's not "presbyopia" as another poster incorrectly suggested.

OK so you have enough astigmatism that you could expect to experience
problems when reading for long periods without glasses (& even
not-so-long periods). Wearing the appropriate glasses when reading would
certainly help you.

Really Larisa I'm not sure what the cause of your problem is. Maybe your
new glasses are too strong (which could certainly cause eye strain).
Maybe you have dry eyes, which has been known to cause a sudden sharp
little pain (which disappears fairly quickly). These are my two best
guesses.

If you came to see me for an opinion I would:
1. Check that your glasses were made correctly.
2. Re-check your vision (refraction) paying attention to the balance
between your eyes and being careful not to "over-minus" you.
3. Also I would assess your tear film to check for dry eye.
4. If nothing showed up yet, I'd start looking for much more unlikely
things like iritis, retrobulbar neuritis, etc. Don't worry about step 4
until you've done 1 to 3!!!

The fact that the pain is in one eye doesn't necessarily mean that that
is the eye with the wrong prescription.

Unless you really don't trust your original eye doctor, I'd go back
there and give him/her an oppotunity to look further into it.

BTW, do you have a copy of your previous prescription you could post for
comparison??

Dom

 

I just had another thought: do your new frames sit further out away from
your eyes than previous pairs?

Yes presbyopia is a hardening of the lens which becomes noticeable
around the mid 40's. At 29 you're way too young to have that.

"Weak accommodative muscles" is not an accurate name for any condition
but just the layman's translation your eye doctor used. What he really
meant I'm not sure.

With your astigmatism I wouldn't recommend doing a law degree without
wearing glasses for reading! Whether they need to be special reading
glasses or just your everyday pair I can't say without a lot more
information. But either way glasses for a law student with your
astigmatism are not 'optional'!

Unfortunatly Aceman who has been 'helping' you is not an eye doctor or
optometrist but an enthusiastic teenager who lives with his parents,
chews psychoactive mushrooms (seriously), and reads a lot about vision
on the internet. As I said to him recently, "a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing". He means well but tends to give advice that's not
backed up by any training, experience or expertise.

Dom

 

Ace she is not "nearly plano" in the left eye. She has 1.25 dioptres of
cyl in that eye. That is not "nearly plano".


and hence why you feel a

Ace she is 29 years old: she does not have presbyopia.

You got

She did not get bifocals, what made you think that she did?

I also cant see clearly

Glasses are not optional when you have one dioptre of cyl and are
planning on going to law school.

Aceman I've said it before and I'll say it again: A little knowledge is
a dangerous thing. You have a *little* knowledge. Your well-meaning
advice may hurt someone. Please be careful.

Dom

 

Umm, not really. They're pretty similar. And it's the old glasses I
had trouble with after the eye strain - glasses that had been
problem-free for two years before that.

She tested my accommodation - showed me some kind of small print to
read, moved it in really close and asked if it was blurry. It was.
The weird thing is that when I had an eye exam 3 years ago, the doctor
had said I had very good accommodation (and I had no trouble reading in
my distance glasses); could eyestrain cause some kind of damage to the
eye muscles?

Sure. That's why I'd like to get the problem resolved before I go to
law school. Right now, I can read without glasses if I take breaks and
rest my eyes periodically. I'm kinda scared to put on my glasses right
now.

LM

 

How does that work?

Yeah, I think that's what I'll do.

It wasn't all that different, from what I recall. I think it was about
0.25sph less in both eyes, with no change in cyl.

I think I'll just go without glasses for now (since that makes the pain
go away), and see what happens. If my left eye still can't tolerate
glasses by the time it's time to go to law school, I'll just get a
monocle. Do people still wear monocles?

LM

 

I have been told I have presbyopia even though im only 23. I dont want
to argue. If you say its not presbyopia, does it make a difference if
my symptoms and purple_bov's act like presbyopia whether they actually
are or not? We both experience a blur if things are held too close to
our eyes.

purple_bov is near plano. With her -1.25 astigmastim and -.25 sphere,
she has a total spherical equivalent of less than -1 diopters. This is
functional for going without glasses and legal to drive since shes
probably 20/30 or at worst, 20/40 uncorrected. Do you know for sure
what it is purple_bov? Ive also suggested to purple_bov getting glasses
just to correct her astigmastim.

 

I'm actually not sure, but alas, I'm not legal to drive without
glasses, because my right eye did not pass the test (the left eye did).
I also find that since my astigmatism is on a nearly-horizontal axis
with my left eye, I can't read street signs when I drive without
glasses - the letters blur together.

Quite seriously, I know my optical error is mild and I don't bump into
the furniture when I walk around, but just after a week of not wearing
glasses, I'm getting a very unlovely wrinkle on my forehead from the
constant squinting. Not good.

I've started using "artificial tears" - I'm not sure if they're helping
any, or if it's the not wearing glasses, but I'm happy to report that
my left eye is now merely "tired" rather than actually painful.
Wrinkles aside, things are improving. I'm still scared to wear
glasses, though.

Now that I think more about this (and optical matters have been rather
at the forefront of my mind lately, obviously), I've had this kind of
pain before (about 2 years ago), when I got glasses with the wrong PD
(the doctor's stupid secretary wrote down the wrong number - it was off
by 10mm). I wore them for a few days because I thought my eyes "needed
to get used to them" - gave myself a pain in the eye instead. It was
the left eye then, too. Could I have strained something then, in an
effort to accommodate to the wrong prescription, and caused a
recurrence now by all the computer use?

LM

 

If your not legal to drive, how do you drive without wearing glasses?
It does seem supprising how much -1.25 diopters of astigmastim blurs or
rather, disorts things. Do you think maybe your glasses pescription is
outdated and too weak? Or maybe your astigmastim axis changed somewhat?
Mine does that all the time so ive gotten glasses that dont correct the
astigmastim and I see fine. Granted my astigmastim is probably no more
than -1 and probably half that in my dormant eye. Have you tried
placing reading glasses over your glasses when reading and see if this
helps with the headaches?

 

Just as an update - I took the left lens out of my glasses. I have to
say it's an improvement - I am not squinting anywhere near as much,
though things do look weird (I probably look weird too - I wonder what
my students will say...). Reading is not as comfortable like this as I
thought it would be. I find myself just closing my left eye to read.
But distance-related things - watching TV and such - are a lot easier.


LM

 

Another possibility is that the axis is incorrect in one eye (maybe a
transcribing error).
I suggest this because often an axis of 100 in one eye would go with an
axis of 80 or thereabouts in the other.
e.g. RE axis 100 LE axis 80.... or RE axis 80 LE axis 100.
Just a thought... especially since that secretary is prone to copying
errors!!

I'd still suggest following those 3(-->4) steps I posted earlier.

Also, keep up those artifical tear drops just in case they help... they
can't do any harm to try, that's for sure.

Dom