Maintaining balance is controlled by the vestibular system, the visual system and proprioceptors in the legs and feet. Vision, however, is often considered the missing link in the diagnosis of dizziness and vestibular problems. Once assessed and diagnosed by a Neuro-Optometrist, patients are relieved to learn that not only is vision a contributing factor to their symptoms, but treatment is also available.
When the two eyes are not working in conjunction with one another, depth perception can be reduced which triggers a sensation of dizziness or lightheadedness.
As symptoms caused by eye misalignment increase, they will impact activities of daily living which, in turn, can bring on mild to severe anxiety that occurs occasionally or even constantly.
Poor focusing skills and misaligned eyes can bring on persistent, daily headaches in and around the face, especially with extended near work demands.
Reduced eye teaming skills or problems with eye alignment can affect balance and gait, putting patients at risk of falling.
If the eyes are unable to work together efficiently as a team, text or words may appear to be moving or overlapping. This may cause eye strain, headaches and reduced concentration.
When the eyes don’t track efficiently together for visual tasks, images and text can get mixed up. This makes it difficult to have sustained attention and focus on a task.
Being able to judge depth accurately is important for many life skills including driving. When eyes don’t coordinate correctly, depth perception is impaired and the visual system struggles to orient the body in space, causing various symptoms.
When the eyes don’t line up correctly, other visual skills become hindered, and the overall visual system becomes unstable. This causes various symptoms that interfere with many activities of daily living.
These special types of lenses move light to a position most comfortable for the eyes for relieving visual stress.
These lightly colored lenses can help reduce visual stimuli, caused by stress or trauma, that can often overwhelm the body.
These unique iseikonic (image balancing) lenses relieve visual stress induced by prescriptions that are dissimilar between the two eyes.
A customized therapy program, often recommended in conjunction with performance lenses, that rebalances the visual system and helps correct underlying binocular vision dysfunctions.
“Dr Cumings is wonderful and I feel very fortunate to have been able to see her. I have dealt with pretty severe vestibular issues and vision disturbances leading to very bad anxiety and panic for the last decade. Explaining my symptoms to Dr Cumings I felt so understood and validated. Dr Cumings took multiple approaches for treatment, giving me exercises to do at home, prescribing glasses and helping me understand the path to feeling better and steps to take on order to get there. Thank you for being realistic, honest and giving me hope.”
Learn more about our Neuro-Optometry services and treatment
for dizziness and vestibular or schedule an appointment today.