r/AskAnOptician

My 5 year old son has a vision issue picked up at a school screening and got a hospital appointment booked for him. However I took him to the optitions 4 weeks beforehand. In this appointment they found a prescription of moderate long-sightedness and a -1:00 astigmatism in the left eye but none in the right. However at the hospital screening, they found the same level of long-sightedness but an astigmatism of +1:50 in the left eye but +1:75 in the right, where there was none found before! What could be the reason for such difference in prescriptions only 4 weeks apart?

i always thought me vision was fine but i went in for an eye test so i could get my license, but to my surprise i failed. as it was only a test to measure if i met the standards to drive we didnt get into the specifics of anything else. My parents went to the optician today for my mum to get new glasses, and they asked about my situation and apparently the optician told them that i would have to start with glasses. But i know multiple people that never had glasses and just got contacts from the get go, so it seems atleast partly untrue or misscominicated, but im not an optician so i could very well be wrong. Now glasses for me are a hard no, only option pertaining to glasses for me would be only wearing them while driving but ive heard that causes tons and tons of headaches, not sure how true that is tho. So for me its just between contacts and a license or nothing and take the buss and public transport is good in my country its just obviously less convenient than a car and i would drive for like 2 years, and when i move away to go to college i would have to just take public transport anyway as i couldnt afford a car.

is the info my parents have been given true or not, can i wear just contact lenses? and why?

I just went to an eye doctor for an exam and it was less than helpful, so hoping someone here might have some ideas! They eye doctor there had absolutely no idea and essentially just said to come back if I get it again.

For context: Everything normal on exam, I don't wear contacts or glasses (nor do I have prescription to), annual physical is also healthy and no health issues in general. I don't remember ever having pink eye in my adolescent or adult life until now!

Ever since having my second baby, now 10 months, I've been having recurrent pink eye. Started about 4-5 months ago now. I've had it 4 times total but the 4th time was most definitely it not fully clearing from the third instance. Switches eye it starts with and usually spreads to the other eye. No one else in my house is getting it. I have since started to use alaway once a day in the mornings along with a daily allergy pill (mild seasonal allergies). I use persevative free drops in the morning, before bed, and once mid day if my eyes feel dry. I was my lashes every time I wash my face so morning and night, with OcuSoft foaming cleanser. I don't remember previously ever waking up feeling build up in my eyes but now almost consistently wake up feeling lots of "sleepies". Each time I have gotten it, I have washed pillow cases, sheets, and blankets- anything that I might have touched. Again, no one else gets it so I'm not easily spreading it. I also don't use makeup when I have an active infection and replace my makeup pretty often in general. I have switched some products lately but have done so after this already began so I don't think its any products specifically doing it.

When I went to the eye doctor, she said I had some debris on my lashes but that it was common. She just recommended I wash my lashes and use something for dry eye (both of which I do already).

I’ve been having issues with new lenses (same RX). Switching from Poly to High-Index.

The vision is great but my eyes feel like they are working extra hard and everything seems very bright. Been having this issue for about a month.

Here’s the thing, all issues go away when I put on my clip-on sunglasses.

What could be causing the light sensitivity? Could it be A/R coating? Just very strange.

Thanks!

My husband (33) pointed it out the other day. I am worried. I asked if his eyes just in the dark and say they do. That he can see in the dark after a few minutes. He had been in the dark for about 30 minutes maybe a bit longer the other night I had him come out and I checked to see if they had changed and nothing. The pupils aren’t tiny pinholes but smaller than mine generally rest at, quite small.

Doctor Google has given all sorts of troubling red but should I be worried?! Should he see an optometrist or a neurologist? Where should we start?

I’ve been struggling a bit with glare from headlights when driving at night, especially on highways. It gets tiring fast and sometimes feels harder to focus.

I’ve seen a lot of those anti-glare or “night driving” glasses online, mostly with yellow lenses or polarized options. Not sure if they actually help or if it’s more of a placebo thing.

From what I’ve read, some say they reduce glare, but others say they can make things darker which might not be ideal at night

Just curious if anyone here actually uses them regularly and noticed a real difference. Or is it better to just stick with proper prescription lenses or coatings?

I wear glasses on the daily, I’m short-sighted. I’ve gone to Specsavers a few years ago for a contact lens test and try - went smoothly and I wore lenses for a couple years with no issues. I had a subscription for lenses for ages and eventually paused because I was getting way too many lenses for how often I was wearing them.

To resume my lens subscription in 2024, I had to attend for another contact lens check with an optician. During the check, i was with a trainee optometrist and I had some yellow dye put into my eye to check for abrasions etc, but during this I felt an incredibly stinging sensation on my right eye. I’ve never felt anything like this during an eye check (I’m 29 and I’ve had eye exams yearly up until this point) so I tried to just get through it, until it became unbearable and I asked the trainee to rinse my eye out because it stung really badly after 1 or 2 minutes.

She rinsed my eye out, made some notes about what happened but the irritation has never gone away. I’ve been told multiple times that the yellow dye is completely inert and does nothing to cause eye damage. However, two years later, my right eye simply hasn’t been the same ever since, it stings at the slightest bit of dryness. It feels itchy VERY often, to the point where it affects my working day (my job involves looking at computer screens for the majority of the day). It feels like there is something in my eye causing a gritty feeling even though on inspection there’s absolutely nothing visible causing this, I don’t know how to approach this, I feel like I’ll be made to feel like a fool for even following this up further at specsavers. I’ve been for a follow-up appointment there but again I was told the dye that was used on my eyes was safe. I just don’t know what to do anymore, I’m in so much pain and discomfort on the daily, please help me.

I’ve tired various eye drops, eye treatments, to no avail, nothing seems to help me at all.

Hi there

M27 here from UK and recently have experienced double vision while watching football (soccer for any Americans) after having a few drinks beforehand.

Have only developed this recently and vision is fine before / after the game when not watching from the stands. It is literally when I look at the pitch I can see 2 of every player. Vision is also fine when sober.

I know the obvious solution is to not drink while at the games, but wondering if this is something an optician could help with or would they just say not to drink?

Thanks

I have permanent double vision after three strabismus surgeries as a kid. My left eye has always been my good eye and for 15 years now I have become accustomed to closing my right eye and using my left. About a week ago I noticed the vision in my left eye was suddenly super blurry - both near and distance vision. After a few days it hadn't gone away but actually had gotten worse so I went to the optometrist. The refraction in my current glasses which were perfectly fine the day before it all went blurry is -1.75. The autorefraction machine was showing -7.5 and the other eye tests were -6.0. The photos and scans showed the eye itself was perfectly healthy so I got an urgent referral to an ophthalmologist. Saw them the next day. During that appointment cyclopentolate drops were put in and my distance vision cleared up. I was given enough drops for 5 days and told to come back for a follow up in a couple of months. I've now done day 4 of the drops and every time they wear off the blurriness immediately returns and seems to be getting worse. It's not intermittent either. I'm almost 30 and have never had an accommodative spasm before. A previous ophthalmologist considered it and ruled it out because I didn't have miosis at the time.

I just have a few questions for anyone that might have experienced this condition.

Does this condition tend to occur more in both eyes or one? What would be the reason for this.

For anyone else who has had it, did you have blurry vision for distance only or both near and distance?

Is it often resistant to treatment or take a long time to fix itself? I've been told I can't take cyclopentolate for too long. I don't really want to anyway.

What are the chances of it being caused by an illness or some other condition? I can't think of any lifestyle factors/changes that would have caused it.

Finally, does anyone have any advice for what to do soon when I've got no more drops, can't see anything out of the eye I use to see everything, and inevitably can't get back in to the ophthalmologists for days at a minimum? I feel like gouging my eyes out some days.

That tiny label? That subtle little warning? I’m pretty scared now :(

This is my first year ever having bad pollen allergies and I didn’t know better. I had lasik a couple years ago so I’m extra paranoid but I just woke up and my eyes were so bloodshot surely there’s some amount of rebounding happening but is this going to be bad? Do I need to see someone?