What are headache symptoms and dizziness?

Almost everyone experiences headaches or dizziness at some point. This can have various causes. An eye condition almost never causes headaches, but the cause can be ophthalmological. Often, your eyesight isn't corrected or isn't corrected properly: you might not wear glasses even though you need them, or your glasses or contact lenses don't correct properly.

How do I recognize headache symptoms and dizziness?

Headaches can be recognized by the following symptoms:

• Pain on one or more sides of the head

• Stabbing, nagging or throbbing pain in the head  
   

Dizziness can be recognized by the following complaints:

• A light feeling in the head

• The feeling that the environment is moving or spinning

• Nausea 

What causes headaches and dizziness?

Headaches and dizziness can be caused by ophthalmological issues. If your symptoms are caused by a lack of or inadequate correction of your eyesight, you often experience the following symptoms:

• The headache develops during the day

• You get a headache after reading or working with a screen for a long time

• The headache is above the eyes

Do you recognize the above symptoms? Then the cause may indeed be an ophthalmological problem, such as:

• An uncorrected refractive error 

• (underlying) farsightedness in young people (hyperopia, plus prescription) 

• Overcorrected myopia (myopia, too much minus strength) 

• Needing a reading glasses (presbyopia) 

• Cylindrical deviation 

Migraine and eye complaints 

Headaches and eye problems can also be symptoms of migraine. Migraines come in various forms. These include regular migraines, classic migraines, and ocular migraines. Ocular migraines are not necessarily associated with headaches and can cause various eye problems, such as:

• Seeing a growing spot 

• Serrated figures (zigzag) 

• Stars or heat waves 

• Temporary visual field loss 

• Temporary narrowing of the visual field and/or tunnel vision 

• Flashes of light and/or auras 

To determine whether your headache has an ophthalmological explanation, it's important to have your eyes examined thoroughly. We'll perform a standard eye exam, as well as a supplementary exam. During this additional exam, we'll put drops in your eyes. This briefly prevents your eyes from straining or focusing. This is necessary so we can properly determine what's wrong. If you'd like to know more about this exam, please contact us.

Incorrect strength and dizziness 

Just like headaches, dizziness has many different causes. If it's related to your eyes, these are the most common causes:

• No or incorrect strength of your contact lenses or glasses 

• Glasses that are incorrectly ground in your glasses or do not fit completely straight 

• The cooperation between your eyes is not optimal 

Find out the cause

When you experience headaches and dizziness, it's always important to determine the source of your symptoms. The specialists at Oogwereld can help you with this and investigate whether the problem lies with your eyes.