Do You Have a Dominant Eye?

Like with your hands, you probably rely on one of your eyes more than the other.

Your eyes may look identical, but one of them may be slightly preferred. Since our vision works by combining the input from both eyes to create a single image, the difference between them is not usually noticeable. Ocular dominance is a phenomenon that you might want to be aware of. Here’s why.

What Is Ocular Dominance?
The preference of one eye’s visual data over the other’s is known as ocular dominance. Ocular dominance is often compared to handedness—the preference of either the left or right hand—though there is no direct correlation between the two. Roughly two-thirds of the population is right-eye dominant, and the remaining third is left-eye dominant.

Do You Have a Dominant Eye?
The majority of the world’s population has a dominant eye, so there’s a good chance that you do, too. Try this quick and easy way to determine which eye outperforms the other.

1. Choose a small, distant object. Good examples include a clock, a door knob, or a light switch.
2. With your fingers together and palms down, create a viewing hole the size of a quarter between your hands by overlapping your thumbs and fingers.
3. Quickly raise your hands this way and sight the object through the viewing hole.
4. Close one eye at a time while focusing on the object.

Whichever eye stays aligned with the object is your dominant eye.

Does Ocular Dominance Affect Your Vision?
Having a dominant eye has zero effect on most people’s eyesight. In general, anything less than a 5% disparity in refractive power between your eyes is unnoticeable. Any more than that, though, and you may have issues with stereovision, which includes 3-D vision or depth perception.

How Can You Take Advantage of Your Dominant Eye?
Knowing which of your eyes is the dominant one can be valuable when performing certain activities, especially sports. In baseball, for example, you would want to align your dominant eye with the release point of a pitch to better see the ball out of the pitcher’s hand. You can also take advantage of this knowledge when doing activities that involve one eye, such as using a telescope or microscope, gazing through a camera lens, or aiming a firearm at the range.

Ocular dominance is nothing to be concerned about. However, if you ever begin to experience abnormal vision, you should see an eye doctor immediately. Sterling Vision is composed of experienced optometrists and ophthalmologists equipped to manage all your eye care needs. To schedule an appointment with us, call 541-342-2201 or schedule online.