Unilateral Vision Loss after a Dental Visit

Abstract

Intraoral local anesthetics are widely used for performing painless dental treatments; however, in some cases, they may cause ocular complications such as meiosis, diplopia, nystagmus, ophthalmoplegia, ptosis, and amaurosis. Mostly, the symptoms disappear after several hours; rarely, they have a prolonged character. We describe the case of a 38-year-old young man who had reduced vision in the left eye 5 days after having received intraoral local anesthesia. A diagnosis of cilioretinal artery occlusion with optic disc swelling was made. Ten weeks later, the patient’s visual acuity had increased to 20/20, and the swelling of the optic disc had subsided. Although various possible mechanisms for ocular complications after intraoral local anesthetic administration were suggested in the literature, the exact etiology remains unclear. In this case, inadvertent intravascular injection is believed to be the cause.