My 75-year-old husband says he’s been seeing double lately. He finds it annoying himself but not something to get excited about. I’m worried about it. The funny thing is that he sees double with one eye.
Female (63)
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
Double vision in one eye is caused by a problem with the eye itself. Usually it is not very serious. For example, you can get it if the cylinder of your glasses is not good, but in the elderly it is often the result of cataracts. With cataracts, cloudiness occurs in the lens, which can sometimes form a kind of string around which the image goes on two sides, as it were. Problems with the cornea can also lead to double vision.
With double vision with two eyes you can think of everything from ‘too much drunk’ to more serious causes because the problem is in the brain, for example a stroke or a tumor. Furthermore, diseases of the eye muscles can cause double vision.
As far as your husband is concerned, it is probably not dangerous if he continues with it, but the problem will not go away on its own. So I would take it to the doctor or ophthalmologist. There is a good chance that it is cataract and that he will see much better if he is treated for it.
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