What is Blurred Vision? Why Does It Happen?

Although blurred vision is often caused by dry eyes, staying awake for long hours, or various vision disorders, it can sometimes occur due to serious diseases. Regular eye examination is important to detect this condition. During the eye examination, the problem can be detected in line with the person's symptoms and treatment can be started.

blurry vision

What is Blurred Vision?

The inability of a person to see things clearly and sharply is called blurred vision. This condition may occur in only one eye or in both eyes. While blurry vision may only occur for a certain period of time, it may also become permanent. People whose vision is blurred try to get a clearer image by squinting their eyes. The most obvious symptom is that objects appear blurry. In some cases, blurred vision may be accompanied by headache, watery eyes or redness.

What are the Causes of Blurred Vision?

The cause of blurred vision may vary from person to person. For this reason, the doctor must perform various tests or ask questions to understand the cause of blurred vision. One of the common causes of blurred vision occurs when the eye cannot focus images correctly. This is a condition that can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses or surgery. But a visual impairment is not always the cause of blurred vision. Dry eyes also cause blurred vision. Especially if the person's visual impairment improves when he or she blinks, this may be due to dry eye disease. Apart from this, due to diabetes, the blood vessels in the eye weaken and blur the vision. Another factor that causes blurred vision, other than diabetes, is glaucoma, which causes fluid accumulation in the eye. Inflammation or damage to the optic nerves is also a condition that causes blurred vision. Regardless of whether the causes of blurred vision are unilateral or bilateral, when it occurs painlessly and gradually, the possible causes are:

Glaucoma
Hyperopia
Myopia
Astigmatism
Cataract
Dry eye
Cystoid macular edema
Genetic diseases
Diabetic maculopathy
Low blood sugar
Macular degeneration
Drug toxicity
Exposure to toxic substances
Inflammatory optic neuropathies
Chronic eye strain
Diabetic retinopathy
Age-related macular degeneration

Causes of Sudden Blurred Vision

Although blurred vision is a condition that usually occurs over time, there are also situations that cause it to occur suddenly. Trauma, migraines, or diseases such as diabetes can cause sudden blurred vision. Some of these situations may require emergency intervention, so sudden blurred vision is a situation that should not be ignored. The causes of sudden blurred vision may vary depending on whether it is painful or painless and whether it affects one or both eyes.

The causes of unilateral, painful and sudden blurred vision are as follows:

Trauma.
Orbital cellulitis
Cornea problems
Glaucoma
Neuropathy
Optic neuritis
Migraine

The causes of one-sided, painless and sudden blurred vision are as follows:

Central retinal artery occlusion
Retinal detachment
Uveitis
Optic neuropathy
Acute corneal edema
Cerebrovascular disease
Vitreous hemorrhage
Migraine
Febrile diseases
Papilledema
Giant cell arteritis

The causes of bilateral, painful and sudden blurring of the eyes are: These are reasons such as the escape of foreign substances or hypertension. However, if bilateral sudden blurred vision is painless, the reasons may be:

Papilledema
Some medications
Cortisone use
Uncontrolled diabetes

How to Diagnose Blurred Vision?

When a person notices a disorder in their vision, they should have an eye examination as soon as possible. The condition that causes blurred vision is diagnosed through physical examination and tests performed by the doctor. Along with the physical examination, information is obtained about visual disorders in the person's family and their medical history is examined. After the physical examination, various eye tests are performed to examine eye defects. These are ophthalmoscopy, refraction testing, slit lamp examination and tonometry. At the same time, in some people, the presence of bacteria or the number of white blood cells can be examined with blood tests.

If the person suddenly begins to have blurred vision, he/she should consult a health institution as soon as possible. In case of sudden or non-sudden blurred vision, it is important to understand what the person wants to say in the tests to be performed after the medical history and physical examination. The doctor tries to understand the problem by asking the person questions about his problem. It is also important to test visual acuity during the examination. This test, performed with a test table, examines the degree to which the person sees near and far. As a result of separate examinations for each eye, the cause of blurred vision may be inability to see far or near. After visual acuity is tested, the doctor examines the eyeball closely with an ophthalmoscope and slit eye lamp to check for any damage to the tissues. Apart from this, tonometry is used to check whether the intraocular pressure is normal.

Blurred Vision Treatment

Treatment of blurred vision may vary depending on the cause of the problem. If the reason for the blurred image is refractive errors in the eye, glasses or contact lenses can be used to eliminate this problem. At the same time, the problem is solved with eye surgeries and refractive errors are prevented. If the cause of blurred vision is an inflammation in the eye, treatment is possible by directly eliminating the infection, as it will cause symptoms such as itching, pain and watering in the eyes in addition to blurriness. To eliminate this infection, the use of antibiotic drugs may be recommended, depending on whether it is caused by bacteria or viruses. These medications prescribed by the doctor eliminate the infection and solve the blurred vision problem. Dry eyes caused by reasons such as long periods of computer use can also cause blurred vision. To eliminate this condition, the doctor may prescribe tear drops. If the blurred vision problem occurs due to serious diseases, vision loss may occur if these diseases are not treated.

There are some soothing options other than medications for the treatment of blurred vision. However, these options can be applied under the supervision of a doctor to relieve blurring that does not develop due to a disease but due to dryness or fatigue of the eye. Relaxing options that can be applied are as follows:

Rest: Eye fatigue may occur due to staying awake for long hours and using electronic devices. To eliminate this situation, it is important to rest the eyes at regular intervals and sleep for sufficient time.
Staying away from smoking: Smoking is among the risk factors of some problems that cause blurred vision, such as cataracts and optic nerve damage. At the same time, exposure to cigarette smoke can cause problems such as redness and burning in the eyes.
Avoiding allergenic substances: Being in an environment that is dusty, contains polluted air or contains other allergenic substances may cause blurred vision in the eyes. If this situation does not harm the eyes and is short-term, changing the environment will help eliminate blurriness.
Contact lens cleaning: If contact lenses are used as a treatment for refractive disorders, staying with the lenses for long hours may blur the image. It is important to clean the lenses regularly with solution and use them in accordance with the instructions.
Compliance with disease treatments: If the person has a problem such as diabetes and high blood pressure, a treatment plan has been determined by the doctor. Compliance with this treatment plan reduces the risk of serious diseases that may cause blurred vision.

If the person has sudden blurred vision or other symptoms occur with blurriness, it is important to go to the emergency room. Since sudden blurred vision may be a result of serious diseases, urgent intervention is of great importance.