Poor vision in adults or children can be the result of a few factors such as anatomical changes or abnormalities in the eye or visual system, diseases affecting the eye, side effects of medication or injuries to the eye. Lots of people also suffer from visual disturbances associated with age or eye stress. Aging and stress can cause changes in your vision, which may cause discomfort and even make it harder to get through daily activities such as reading books or looking at a computer screen for long periods. These vision problems can be expressed via the following symptoms: blurry vision, headaches, eye strain, and trouble seeing from short or long distances.
One of the first signs of a vision problem can be blurred vision. If you suffer from blurred vision when you're focusing on distant objects, you may very well be nearsighted, or myopic. If you suffer from blurred vision when you're viewing objects nearby this may be a sign of farsightedness, or hyperopia. It can also mean you have astigmatism which occurs because of a flaw in the shape of the cornea, or sometimes the curvature of the lens inside the eye. In all cases of blurry vision, it is really important that an eye doctor thoroughly check your vision and decide on the best way to improve your sight.
Another sign of a vision problem is the inability to distinguish between different colors or brightness of color. This indicates a problem perceiving color, or color blindness. Interestingly, this condition is generally unknown to the patient until discovered with a test. Color blindness is mainly something that affects males. If present in a female it may represent ocular disease, and an optometrist should be consulted. For people who can't see objects in dim light, it is a sign of possible night blindness.
A problem frequently seen in aging people is cataracts, which have a number of warning signs which include: unclear vision that worsens in bright light, weak night vision, trouble seeing small writing or details, the need for brighter light when reading, double or triple vision in one eye only painful inflammation around the eye, and an opaque white look to the usually dark pupil.
Throbbing pain in the eye, headaches, blurred vision, inflammation in the eye, rainbow coronas around lights, nausea and vomiting are indicators of glaucoma, a serious medical illness, which requires medical attention.
With younger patients, it is important to look out for uncoordinated eye movement, or eyes that cross in or out, which may indicate a vision problem known as strabismus. Some behavior in children, like rubbing one or both eyes, squinting, head tilting, or the need to close one eye in order to see things better, often indicate strabismus.
If you have any of the symptoms we've mentioned here, see your eye doctor as soon as possible. While clearly some conditions could be more serious than others, anything that limits good sight can be something that compromises your quality of life. A short visit to your optometrist can prevent being avoidably uncomfortable, or even more severe eye problems.