With Labor Day behind us, it’s official—the dog days of summer are over. For many people, the start of fall marks the end of vacation and a return to the daily grind. While it’s normal to feel some degree of weariness and discomfort after spending hours working in the office each day, symptoms like chronic headaches or neck and shoulder pain should not be ignored. Not only can these symptoms compromise your productivity at work, they could be a sign of an underlying medical condition: binocular vision dysfunction (BVD). This eye muscle strain condition is tricky to detect, largely because many of its symptoms have nothing to do with the eyes.
In today’s post, we take a look at some of the behaviors and symptoms that BVD patients often exhibit in the workplace. If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to schedule a neurovisual exam.
Tilting Your Head for Better Vision
BVD is caused by a tiny vertical misalignment in the eyes, which causes double vision. Patients with BVD will often subconsciously tilt their head when looking at an object to see it more clearly. Doing so helps counteract the misalignment in the eyes, making it easier to see. However, repeating this motion throughout the day can also cause serious neck and shoulder pain. Because this pain is more obvious than the movement that caused it—i.e., the head tilting—many patients assume they have a chiropractic issue rather than a visual one.
Closing One Eye to Improve Focus
Patients with BVD often have issues with visual focus. Static images may appear to flutter or slide across the field of vision, or they may appear twice. One way to “correct” this problem is to close one eye when reading or doing computer work. This is tedious and time-consuming and can seriously impede productivity. Further complicating the problem is that doctors who perform routine eye exams typically don’t have the equipment or knowledge to test for BVD. So even if you went to an optometrist to get help with focusing issues, they still might not catch the problem.
Headaches When Doing Computer Work
Many people get occasional headaches, but if you’re suffering from recurrent headaches that always seem to start up shortly after you begin working on the computer or engaging in other close-range tasks, you might have BVD. This type of headache is caused by the overexertion of your eye muscles, which are straining to correct the misalignment in your eyes.
How We Can Help
Left untreated, BVD can negatively impact your career and your overall quality of life. At the Neuro Visual Center of New York, we have the training and equipment to diagnose and treat BVD. We can prescribe aligning prismatic lenses that fix the misalignment in your eyes, significantly reducing or even totally eliminating your symptoms. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, call us today at (516) 224-4888.
