Headaches after obtaining new glasses (not a new Rx)

I am a 28 year old male and I have worn glasses and contacts for about the last 16 years. I almost exclusively wear my glasses though - due to eye allergies I rarely wear my contacts more than once or twice a month. My current glasses prescription (-2.50 left eye -3.25 right eye) has not changed since 2003. I wore the same pair of glasses using this prescription since 2003 until very recently. I have regularly seen the same optometrist every year since I was a child. Late last year the frame on my old pair of glasses was damaged and I decided to pick up some new glasses. I had had my regular eye checkup a few months earlier and everything checked out my vision was the same etc. So in January I went to a nearby Lenscrafters bringing my old glasses. Lenscrafters used their machine to take the prescription off my old lenses and used it to make two new pairs of glasses for me (two different style frames). Unfortunately I did not anticipate any problems after getting my two new pairs of glasses and I threw out my old pair with the damaged frame. Within a week of wearing the two new pairs of glasses I began experiencing pretty severe headaches and a general ache in my eyes. It seemed to happen equally with either pair of the new glasses. Mostly the headaches would occur when focusing on something stationary for a while (computer screen reading etc.) although they did occur in general to a lesser extent. I do work approximately 8 hours a day on a computer however I worked in this same manner for several years prior to this without any issues. I spoke to my optometrist and she said that sometimes even though the prescription may not be different it may take my eyes a while to get used to the new glasses. After about 2 months the issues did not subside. I visited my eye doctor and she did some tests. She found that in both pairs of my new glasses the prescription was slightly stronger by 1/4 diopter in each eye (-2.75 left eye -3.50 right eye). She said that it was a very slight difference and that most people would not be affected by it but then she did a test (I am unsure of what it is called) where I look at the eye chart with half the letters covered by a red light and half covered with a green light. She asks if one side is clearer than the other or if they are the same. In both eyes with both glasses the green side was more clear and she said this indicated that the slight increase in prescription was affecting me. With this information I took these two pairs of glasses back to Lenscrafters and pointed out that they had given me a slightly incorrect prescription. They refitted the glasses with the correct prescription lenses. I had hoped this would alleviate the headaches and eye pain but it has still continued since then. It really feels like there is a pulling sensation on my eyes when I focus on something and it almost feels like my eyes would be more relaxed if I were cross-eyed. I called and followed up with my optometrist again but she didn't really offer any additional help. She seemed to think that if the prescription was correct then it could not be my glasses. I have a hard time believing that considering that I had never had these issues before and they started almost overnight once I started wearing these two new pairs of glasses. I have noticed that if I wear one pair for a few days in a row and then switch to the other pair it is worse on the day I switch (though no matter how many days in a row I wear one pair I still experience pain). The two pairs of glasses are slightly differently shaped (one is more rectangular one more oval). I'm not sure if this could be part of the issue. I'm really at the end of my rope here and my optometrist seemed somewhat disinterested the last time I asked about it. I could really use a second opinion. Do you have any idea what could be causing these issues? Is there some possible issue with my glasses that may not have to do with prescription strength that could be causing eye strain and headaches? Thank you in advance!

2014-12-26 05:44:18

Amy