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Ghosting with light text and dark background
About a month ago i lost my glasses for a couple of weeks before that but didnt worry because i had an appointment to see my eye doctor. He gave me my new prescription (I cant see long distance very well). Also for the first time he gave me contacts and let me wear them for the day to try them out. So im not sure if it is due to the contacts as ive never worn them before or not.
But then i noticed after i got my glasses a few days later that when i watched television or LED lights on clocks and theres dark backgrounds with light text, i see a bit of ghosting underneath (at first i thought this was called double vision but was informed that in fact double vision is when EVERYTHING is double and not just words and its more like a shadow of the text underneath where i can kinda see half the letters again but not really. Its more like the shadow is bleeding down maybe? its hard to explain). This is particularly evident with black background and white text becasue usually otherwise i wouldnt see it or notice it much if the background was a bit lighter. I went to my optometrist and hes quite skilled and looked at my eye for about an hour and did every test possible. My eye sight hadnt changed or anything and he checked the back of my eyes plenty of times. He said that i should go to my doctor or he would refer me to an opthamologist to see what he thought but he said that the opthamologist would do the exact same tests as he did which wouldnt do much. I went to two doctors (my GP and a family friend) and both explained to me that ur refractive error gets worse when your tired (because i mostly notice this issue at night) or your eyes are strained (i use my laptop alot!) and that i should just ignore it. Its been a couple of weeks since i saw my GP about it and i have only noticed it once (today) and it frustrated me a bit.
Should i keep ignoring it or what? My parents think im ahypocondriac and my mum assures me that she has a similar problem with her eyes and that the txt isnt perfect but im not convinced. She may just tell me that to make me feel better. Could this be due to the contacts? I only have the daily ones (the ones u throw out after u use them once)
If it is ill stop wearing them and see if it makes a difference :)
Please help!
But then i noticed after i got my glasses a few days later that when i watched television or LED lights on clocks and theres dark backgrounds with light text, i see a bit of ghosting underneath (at first i thought this was called double vision but was informed that in fact double vision is when EVERYTHING is double and not just words and its more like a shadow of the text underneath where i can kinda see half the letters again but not really. Its more like the shadow is bleeding down maybe? its hard to explain). This is particularly evident with black background and white text becasue usually otherwise i wouldnt see it or notice it much if the background was a bit lighter. I went to my optometrist and hes quite skilled and looked at my eye for about an hour and did every test possible. My eye sight hadnt changed or anything and he checked the back of my eyes plenty of times. He said that i should go to my doctor or he would refer me to an opthamologist to see what he thought but he said that the opthamologist would do the exact same tests as he did which wouldnt do much. I went to two doctors (my GP and a family friend) and both explained to me that ur refractive error gets worse when your tired (because i mostly notice this issue at night) or your eyes are strained (i use my laptop alot!) and that i should just ignore it. Its been a couple of weeks since i saw my GP about it and i have only noticed it once (today) and it frustrated me a bit.
Should i keep ignoring it or what? My parents think im ahypocondriac and my mum assures me that she has a similar problem with her eyes and that the txt isnt perfect but im not convinced. She may just tell me that to make me feel better. Could this be due to the contacts? I only have the daily ones (the ones u throw out after u use them once)
If it is ill stop wearing them and see if it makes a difference :)
Please help!
Hello Christian81, the symptoms you have told very aptly fit into astigmatism. Before I could proceed further, first I would like to know, how much is the astigmatism.? If it's in range of 0.5 it shouldn't bother you. Anything between 1-2 is moderate and 2-3 is high grade. Astigmatism happens most commonly due to uneven corneal surface. The most common type is "regular astigmatism" aka "with the rule" and the irregular one aka "against the rule" is less common. Astigmatism can also occur due to eye lens also, but that is very rare.
You must get your cornea checked, a corneal topography/pentascan would help in finding out the type and will also tune out the possibility of keratoconus.
If this astigmatism is increasing you should follow up with your ophthalmologist every 3-6 monthly and get follow up corneal topography done. If progressive it's not a good sign and you might need corneal cross linking.
You must get your cornea checked, a corneal topography/pentascan would help in finding out the type and will also tune out the possibility of keratoconus.
If this astigmatism is increasing you should follow up with your ophthalmologist every 3-6 monthly and get follow up corneal topography done. If progressive it's not a good sign and you might need corneal cross linking.
Wow, you saved my day! I was not expecting an answer on this post and I have the exact problem. It seems that I have an high-order aberration since I got tested several times for regular astigmatism. I have an appointment with an ophthalmologist next week. Thank you!
I doubt you get a response note that post from 2010 and no posts from that individual since 2011. Ghosting in one eye can be due to: uncorrected refractive error often astigmatism, incorrect glasses RX or glasses out of alignment or bad manufacturer, corneal disease or distortion due to poor contact lens fitting, early cataract, macular disease.
sorry one more question..
3) because i can see good through the hole does this eliminate chances of it being a brain/nerve problem?
3) because i can see good through the hole does this eliminate chances of it being a brain/nerve problem?
1 Comments
Thanks for this post . I do have very similar problem with my left eye. Can you see better now ? What did your optometrist do different to make u see better. My optometrist tells me I have 20/15 in the right and that's why the left seem to be worse . But there's always ghosting or blurry vision in the left. That's not 20/20. Um eagerly awaiting how ur doing lately . Thanks again.
I checked this several times within the last few days and yes everytime i see this double vision/ghosting type thing with glasses/contacts on it goes away completely when i look through the hole. Also WITHOUT my glasses or contacts i can see perfectly through the hole in the card that i made. Is this a good thing?
1) does this rule out any corneal diseases or eye diseases because my vision is perfect and the ghosting goes away when looking through the hole
2) if i have astigmatism, wouldn't it have been picked up by the optometrist?
Thankyou so much for taking the time to help me out :)
1) does this rule out any corneal diseases or eye diseases because my vision is perfect and the ghosting goes away when looking through the hole
2) if i have astigmatism, wouldn't it have been picked up by the optometrist?
Thankyou so much for taking the time to help me out :)
I checked this several times within the last few days and yes everytime i see this double vision/ghosting type thing with glasses/contacts on it goes away completely when i look through the hole. Also WITHOUT my glasses or contacts i can see perfectly through the hole in the card that i made. Is this a good thing?
1) does this rule out any corneal diseases or eye diseases because my vision is perfect and the ghosting goes away when looking through the hole
2) if i have astigmatism, wouldn't it have been picked up by the optometrist?
Thankyou so much for taking the time to help me out :)
1) does this rule out any corneal diseases or eye diseases because my vision is perfect and the ghosting goes away when looking through the hole
2) if i have astigmatism, wouldn't it have been picked up by the optometrist?
Thankyou so much for taking the time to help me out :)
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Get a small card an use a sharp instrument an put a hole in it about 2 mm. Put this in front of your glasses and look through the hole.
Dr. O.
Dr. O.
wow thankyou so much doctor!
How can i do this pinhole thing? Do you actually mean putting a hole in the middle of one of my glasses to see if it eliminates the ghosting? Wouldnt the optometrist pick it up btw through all the testing if that was the case?
How can i do this pinhole thing? Do you actually mean putting a hole in the middle of one of my glasses to see if it eliminates the ghosting? Wouldnt the optometrist pick it up btw through all the testing if that was the case?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
You symptoms are suggestive of a very small amount of uncorrected astigmatism. See if this improves with a pinhole. This will confirm the diagnosis. If it is irregular astigmatism it will not be corrected by glasses. However, a contact lens (hard) will correct it.
Dr. O.
Dr. O.
Also i should note that im only 20 years old. I have only experienced this once on a book cover in a book shop i had my glasses on and i could see it ghosting a bit but completely ignored it. I also get tired and sore eyes sometimes but went to my GP about that a few days ago and was told it was due to stress/sinus problems/eye strain which causes headaches (i was getting them a bit but they have basically gone now yay but come back when im stressed out)
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