Have you ever experienced a weird pain around, behind, or in the vicinity of the eye? In today’s blog post and video by Hina Sheth, we’ll go over a surprising reason that might be causing your eye pain.
Before we move on, make sure that you have had your eye cleared by your primary care physician and/or eye doctor. Now, consider that your eye pain may actually be a problem with a muscle—the sternocleidomastoid (SCM). The sternocleidomastoid originates at the collarbone and sternum and attaches to an area behind your jaw bone.
You can observe the muscle in yourself and others when you turn your head. When the SCM becomes problematic, one of the areas it can cause pain is behind the eye. Pain referred from the SCM can also be experienced along the brow, behind the eye, underneath the eye socket, and along the side of the nose. All of these areas may also be tender to the touch and can refer pain to other areas of the body as will be discussed in later blogs. SCM irritation and pain may also cause visual disturbances including blurriness, fogginess, and light sensitivity.
The SCM can become problematic in a few different ways: acute trauma such as a car accident or a fall, or postural changes which may occur with prolonged sitting or a job with repetitive tasks. The SCM could also become problematic due to musculoskeletal compensations that occur over a long period of time. Stay tuned to future blog posts where we go into how to examine your own SCM to see if it’s causing your eye pain and what you can do to treat it!
In-Person and Online Consultations
