Vision After a Brain Injury: A Path to Recovery
By Dr. Jesse Willingham
You might have someone in mind while you read this, maybe it’s why you are looking into the link between head injuries and vision. If so, please feel free to connect with us to ask any specific questions about the individual’s symptoms.
March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, so I would like to acknowledge the incredible struggle that brain injury patients survive every day, and speak to how optometric vision therapy and rehabilitation can be such an important part of the comprehensive care these patients need.
The Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA) reports that as many as 90% of brain injuries can result in some sort of visual dysfunction, including blurred vision, loss of side or central vision, light sensitivity, difficulty with eye movements, reading difficulties, or headaches or discomfort from visual tasks.
Vision Is More Than 20/20
This is not surprising when you learn that so much of the brain is involved in vision and visual processing, and once you understand that vision is so much more than just being able to see 20/20 on the eye chart. If we break down all the skills needed just to see 20/20 beyond having a healthy eyeball and the right glasses, you also need to:
- Be able to focus the eye at a distance (not over or under focus)
- Be able to find the letters to read
- Maintain you line of sight on the letters long enough to then
- Identify the letter
- Mentally connect that visual image with the language centers of the brain to say what you see
Life Takes Sustained Focus
All of these things can be affected by a brain injury, but so many more things have to be done in our everyday lives to maintain clear and comfortable vision. Chiefly, we have to do everything listed above, but then constantly repeat and maintain the process as we look from place to place, at different distances and angles, sometimes while blasting down a highway at superhuman speed!
Vision Is Not One Size Fits All
Most of us are by nature visual beings living in a visual world, but we are often lucky to take clear, comfortable vision for granted. But a stroke, concussion, or other traumatic brain injury can take what has always come naturally to us and make it an obstacle, even if you previously saw very well without glasses.
Optometrists trained in vision rehabilitation have several tools beyond prescription lenses to improve visual clarity. These include:
- Prisms to improve visual comfort and efficiency
- Tints to improve visual comfort and reduce light sensitivity
- Selective occlusion to remove visual information that is beyond what the injured brain can currently comfortable process
- Vision rehabilitation therapy, where we can teach the eyes to move, focus, and team more efficiently, and integrate with the rest of our senses again
Take Action For A Better Life
Because good vision can be so beneficial to all different aspects of brain injury rehabilitation, it is imperative that patients who have suffered from a brain injury be evaluated early in their path to recovery. A rehabilitative optometrist will be with you throughout your entire journey, communicating with the rest of your care team so they understand how your vision impacts their treatments to help give you the best results.
If you have struggled coping with symptoms after a brain injury, but are no longer improving in your rehabilitation program, a comprehensive functional vision evaluation with an optometrist trained and experienced in brain injury rehabilitation might be what you need to take the next step forward. Connect with us at Brighter Outlook Vision to learn more during a free phone consultation.
