Eyes dilated, wore lightly shaded sunglasses

Yesterday I had an eye exam by an Ophthalmologist and he dilated my eyes. After the exam I walked outside into the bright sunlight with no sun glasses for the first 2 or 3 minutes. I put on my sun glasses but they were not the dark kind and seemed to make no difference at all. I sat for a half an hour with my eyes closed and then proceeded home. I had to squint to the point that my eyes were practically closed. It took a half hour to get home. There were a lot of reflections from windows and cars and it was extremely uncomfortable. I called the Doctor and he said that I should've came back in and they would've given me temporary shades. I didn't know.

Has this happened to anyone else here? Did I do any harm to myself?

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

This is common.  We give dark disposable sun glasses to use after dilation.

Dr. O.

[guymandude]

I was not given dark glasses. In my situation, was squinting sufficient enough to protect myself?