Sudden Double Vision Lasting A Few Minutes: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis

Have you ever experienced a sudden double vision that stays for a few minutes? If yes, then you are not the one with this problem.

Often many people complain of this. Double vision usually occurs when a person sees double images instead of one image that he should usually be seeing.

These images either appear next to each other or on top of one another. This harms the reading ability of the person and has to face many challenges.

When the effect is in one eye, it is usually called monocular, and when it affects both eyes, the term used is binocular.

Causes of binocular or double vision (diplopia)

This is the condition when both your eyes cannot work together. This situation generally arises because the eyes start pointing at different angles.

So, as a result, two different images are sent to your brain, and your brain will see two images that are too different to make one clear image. Some of the causes for this are

Squint

Squint is the term used for double vision. In this condition, the eyes will point at different angles. The difference in angle is due to weakness in the muscles of the eyes or paralysis. Weakness or movement is prevented because of restriction.

Squint most commonly occurs in younger children, and it always won’t end up in a double vision.

Other Conditions

Some of the other conditions leading to double vision are

• Thyroid: Thyroid can affect the muscles of external eye
• Diabetes: This disease can harm the blood vessels that bring blood to the nerves in the eyes.
• Myasthenia gravis: In this condition the eye muscles are weakened.
• Cancer or brain tumour behind eye– This condition results in damage to eye nerves
• Head injury: This may result in damage to eye muscles that help in movement of eyes.

When to consult a doctor

You should consult a doctor whenever you start seeing symptoms of binocular double vision. This vision can be an indication of a severe medical condition.

It is a well-known fact that usually, children cannot tell what problem they are facing. So it will be the best action to take your child to a doctor.

Some of the signs in children for double vision include squint and narrowing eyes at frequent intervals. However, over time, children learn the art of suppression, learning to ignore one image. If this thing is not taken care of, the child can permanently lose the vision in one eye.

Diplopia diagnosis

The first step is to ascertain that the child has monocular or binocular double vision. To check, this doctor will check by covering each eye one by one.

After this, if this vision is there, the doctor will check the reason for it if it is a neurological disorder, some disease or diabetes the cause.

Then the doctor will check if eye muscles are fine or affected. Based on various tests, symptoms and medical history doctor will decide the action.

Treatment

• Wearing eye patch
• Wearing an opaque contact lens
• Addition of prisms to glasses
• Eye exercises
• Surgery of eye muscles
• Botox injections in eye muscles

So these are all about sudden double vision. You can check the cause and go for treatment accordingly.