I had to have a physical yesterday to renew my drivers license and had an eye exam done. The doctor told me I have 20/40 vision in my left eye and 20/17 in my right. He said something to the effect that since my right eye is better than the left, it does most of the work and my left eye will continue to get worse.
Is this true? Is my left eye going to just give up and stop trying? It sounds like a funny question but that’s kind of what he said, isn’t it? Does this mean I will need glasses?
Years ago, I heard this ‘unequal’ vision could lead to “lazy eye.” You know, where the weaker eye sorta looks like it’s looking in another direction . . . don’t know if it’s true tho.
First reaction: A physical to renew your drivers license? Where the hell do you live?
Anyway, I would see a specialist (I can never remember what the real eye doctors are called … opthamologists?) and find out what can be done to correct this before it “gets worse” (as your g.p. seems content to let it do).
Apparently yes, according to this: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/eye/patient_info/amblyopia.asp: "The brain cannot put the blurry image and the clear image together in the way that we usually see. Instead, the brain will start to ignore the blurry image. If this goes on for months or years, the vision in the eye that sees the blurry image will start to deteriorate. Not only will the image be blurry, it will get very dim. The eye can also stop moving normally, and it might stay turned away to the side. This is why amblyopia is sometimes called “lazy eye.” "
Not sure yours is anywhere as serious as lazy-eye.
20/40 doesn’t necessarily need glasses, according to http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/health/vision.htm: “Although 20/40 vision may be enough to pass a driver’s license eye test in most states, you still may need or choose to wear corrective lenses for distance vision, particularly at night.”
It sounds like you may need glasses at least for some circumstances.
IANAO, of course.
First of all KneadToKnow, I am renewing my class “B” drivers license in California because I used to drive a Youth Bus and am considering become a school bus driver. You have to have a medical certificate for a class A or Class B license.
Thank You gigi I will check out those links right now.
Your doctor did not, apparently, test what your vision is using both eyes. This is important as to whether or not you may need glasses. You should really see an opthalmologist. There are methods to eliminate or avoid amblyopia. One obvious way is to wear a patch over your better eye for times, which will force your brain to use your weaker eye.
I don’t know how the doctor found your vision to be 20/17. The lines in the eyechart have “5” demarcations. If you cannot read an entire line, this is noted by the number of characters you miss, prefixed by a minus sign. Or, if more convenient, the number of characters you got, prefixed by a plus sign. For example, if you read the entire line at 20/30, but only two in the 20/25, your vision would be 20/30 +2. If you read tghe entire line at 20/30, but missed only two in the 20/25, your vision would be 20/25 -2.
I have a similar condition and yes, the explanation is the same one I’ve heard. If you feel eyestrain then you should get glasses, which will improve the vision of the “bad” eye and take some of the strain off the good one. You may get headaches, people will say you’re squinting, your eyes may feel tired, etc. My symptom was that while driving, suddenly a car would appear “out of nowhere” on my right side… because my right eye really wasn’t “seeing” it.
I would say that if you’re driving a school bus then you should talk with a good eye doctor (a good optometrist or an opthamologist).
The test was where I looked into, I don’t know what you call the machine, but there were squares divided into four sections and each separate section had a dot in one of the squares. Each one was placed behind the other in a sort of 3D scene. I assume it was to measure distance for nearsightedness or something. I really don’t know, I haven’t seen an eye doctor for years. But I am going to make an appointment as soon as I find out how much it costs for a visit. Unfortunately my insurance doesn’t cover vision. Thanks again for all your help.
It will indeed; vision in my right eye is getting steadily worse. I had a lazy eye when I was a child, although that was corrected I’ve always had to wear glasses. I’ve been very sloppy about wearing my glasses over the last ten years; I just wore them for driving and watching the telly and just squinted the rest of the time. My last appointment was four months ago and the left eye is holding steady at 20/40 but my right is now 20/200. :insert cross-eyed smiley:
Will this happen to anyone whose vision is different in each eye? Does there have to be a large enough difference, or does one eye have to be sufficiently bad?
Most people’s vision probably IS a little better on one side or the other - you have a dominant eye just as you have a dominant hand. But a small difference probably isn’t enough to matter.
If there is a big difference, yes, you could wind up losing vision in one eye. But that takes a long time. If you do your every-two-year visit to the eye doctor it should easily be caught in time to prevent this.
There is one circumstance where different vision in each eye is actually an advantage. It’s called “monovision”, and it’s where one eye see distance better, and the other sees close up better. Your brain gets used to using one for up close, the other for far away, and some folks adapt well to it and can avoid bifocals. Other folks can’t adapt to it, and require glasses - but different prescriptions on each side.
To be honest, this is all somewhat of a simplification. I would strongly suggest anyone who needs glasses go to a competant eye doctor and be properly examined and fitted.