What Causes A Sensitivity To Light?

Photophobia, also known as a sensitivity to light, is a condition where an individual's eyes experience pain when exposed to bright lights. Less severe cases of light sensitivity can cause an affected individual to squint and feel discomfort when they walk outside or into a brightly lit room. Severe cases of photophobia can trigger significant pain sensations when an affected individual's eyes are exposed to any kind of light. Other symptoms that occur in these patients include difficulty looking at pictures, reading a text, bright-colored floaters in the dark, aversion to light, and frequent squinting. Light sensitivity is diagnosed with the use of a physical examination, standard eye examination, slit-lamp eye examination, MRI, and tear film examination. Depending on the underlying cause of photophobia, oral medications, eye drops, antibiotics, artificial tears, bed rest, surgery, and the use of tinted lenses are methods that may be used for treatment.

Light sensitivity has several different causes. Get to know the most common now.

Eye Infection

An eye infection is the colonization of bacteria, parasites, or viruses in an individual's eye tissues that cause inflammation. An individual who has an eye infection may have discharge from one or both eyes, abnormal eyelid color, crusty substance on eyelashes and eyelids, pain, itchiness, swelling, blurry vision, and discoloration of the white of the eye. Another common symptom that occurs with eye infections in some individuals is a sensitivity to light. Pinkeye, which is an infection of the conjunctiva; keratitis, an infection of the cornea; a stye; uveitis, the infection of the uvea; and fungal eye infections can all result in light sensitivity. The increased amount of swelling and inflammation that occurs in response to the invasion of a foreign pathogen in any of the eye tissues can cause the eye to be extremely sensitive to bright lights because of temporary functional impairment and the inability to adjust to bright light properly.

Keep reading to learn more about the causes of a sensitivity to light now.