Poor vision in adults or children can be caused by a few factors including changes in the body or in the eye, diseases affecting the eye, side effects caused by medicine or injuries to the eye. Many people also suffer from visual disturbances associated with age or eye stress. This can cause changes in your eyesight, which can sometimes make it painful or difficult to perform daily activities, like reading books or working on a computer for long periods. Common symptoms of these types of vision problems include blurry vision, headaches, eye strain, and trouble seeing from short or long distances.
One of the most common signs of a vision problem can be blurred vision. If you have blurred vision when you are focusing on distant objects, you could very well be nearsighted, or myopic. Blurred vision that's present when you are looking at anything nearby may be a sign of farsightedness, or hyperopia. It can also be a sign of astigmatism which occurs because of a flaw in the way the cornea is formed. No matter the reason you have blurry vision, it is really important that an optometrist examine your vision and decide on the best way to improve your sight.
Another indicator of a vision problem is difficulty discerning different colors or brightness of color. This generally means the patient has color blindness. Interestingly, this condition is often not known to the patient until diagnosed via a consultation. Color blindness is mostly found in males. If present in a female it might mean she has ocular disease, and an eye doctor should be consulted. If you struggle to distinguish between objects in minimal light, it is a sign of possible night blindness.
A problem commonly found in aging patients is cataracts, which can have numerous warning signs including: unclear sight that worsens in bright light, weak night vision, difficulty seeing small writing or details, the need for brighter light when reading, inflammation of the eye, and an opaque white look to the normally dark pupil.
Pulsing pain in the eye, headaches, blurred vision, inflammation in the eye, colorful coronas around lights, nausea and vomiting are also signs of glaucoma, an acute medical condition, which needs medical attention.
When it comes to children, it's useful to look out for uncoordinated eye movement, or crossed eyes, which may indicate a vision problem known as strabismus. Certain behavior, like rubbing one or both eyes frequently, squinting, or needing to shut one eye to see things better, can often point to strabismus.
Even though some conditions are more severe than others, any disruption to clear vision will be something that really affects your quality of life. A quick appointment with your optometrist can save you from unnecessary discomfort, not to mention further eye and vision damage.