Dizzy While Driving? Learn All About BVD
Have you ever been driving down the road and suddenly felt overwhelmed with dizziness? Such an experience can be quite scary. You may even start to dread driving. Dizziness can make getting behind the wheel difficult. It can make you avoid busy highways or quit driving altogether.
Many people experience sudden vertigo while driving. They feel like the world around them is spinning, even when they know that it is not. Essentially, you feel dizzy or woozy while seated and stationary. Fortunately, treatment is available. Thus, you do not need to experience this problem while driving.
Vertigo
This medical condition stems from a malfunction of the inner ear. The inner ear is responsible for anchoring the body to the outside world and maintaining a sense of balance. Certain medications can also be a source of vertigo. Some of these include sedatives and blood pressure and antidepressant medications.
What Is Binocular Vision Dysfunction?
BVD can make you experience dizziness while driving, which can be quite frustrating. Many people suffer from binocular vision disorders, also known as vertical heterophoria, while driving or making any form of swift movement. This problem can be physically dangerous in the long term.
Binocular vision dysfunction typically results from misaligned eyes or visual system issues that affect the transmission of images to the brain. Essentially, this condition can cause motion sickness and dizziness due to the ineffective fusing of images from each eye.
Binocular vision disorders can cause various symptoms. However, motion sickness is one of the most common symptoms. You may also experience motion sickness while traveling by plane, riding in a car, or on spinning rides.
Causes of BVD
Binocular vision dysfunction has many causes. Some of these include stroke, brain injury, and other neurological disorders. Facial asymmetry can also cause BVD. This is a condition where one eye is physically located higher than the other. A nerve or eye muscle dysfunction or facial asymmetry is something many people have.
Common Symptoms of BVD
Dizziness is not the only symptom caused by BVD. Other symptoms you may experience include:
- Double vision.
- Carsickness.
- Depth perception issues.
- Sensitivity to glare and bright lights.
- Blurred vision.
- Problems while riding as a passenger, especially in the back seat.
- Disorientation.
- Feeling like things you see in your peripheral vision are moving when they are not.
Treatment
Sometimes, doctors incorrectly treat patients with BVD for vertigo or migraines rather than the actual problem. Consequently, such people end up living with discomfort since they do not undergo the necessary tests to get help. If you have this condition, specialized realigning glasses can provide relief. You do not need to experience dizziness while driving.
Prismatic lenses can help correct eye misalignment by manipulating light before it enters your eyes. Such lenses will fuse the images that reach your brain from your two eyes into a single image.
They trick the brain into thinking that your eyes are aligned. Consequently, you will not experience eye muscle strain. Also, you will see just one object. Your symptoms should gradually subside or disappear.
To learn more about BVD, visit Clarke EyeCare Center at our office in Wichita Falls, Texas. You can call 940-905-0700 today to schedule an appointment.