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How do doctors treat an eye turn?
How Do Doctors Treat an Eye Turn (Strabismus) in Lodi, CA?An eye turn—clinically known as strabismus—can be difficult to treat and often requires a customized, whole-vision approach. At our Lodi, CA optometry practice, we emphasize identifying the cause of the misalignment, not just making the eyes appear straight. There is no simple or miracle cure, and effective treatment depends on the type of eye turn, the patient's age, and how the brain and eyes work together.
How do doctors treat an eye turn?
How Do Doctors Treat an Eye Turn (Strabismus) in Lodi, CA?An eye turn—clinically known as strabismus—can be difficult to treat and often requires a customized, whole-vision approach. At our Lodi, CA optometry practice, we emphasize identifying the cause of the misalignment, not just making the eyes appear straight. There is no simple or miracle cure, and effective treatment depends on the type of eye turn, the patient's age, and how the brain and eyes work together.
There are three primary methods used to treat strabismus:
1. Eye Muscle SurgeryEye muscle surgery may be recommended to improve eye alignment. While surgery can straighten the eyes cosmetically, it does not always correct the underlying visual coordination problem. In many cases, surgery alone does not restore comfortable binocular vision and may require additional treatment.
2. Prism GlassesPrism lenses can help align images seen by the eyes, reducing double vision and eye strain. Prism glasses may be helpful for symptom relief but typically do not retrain the visual system or correct the cause of the eye turn.
3. Vision Therapy for Eye TurnsVision therapy is a non-surgical treatment for strabismus that retrains the brain and eyes to work together. Through guided, individualized exercises, vision therapy improves eye teaming, focusing, tracking, and depth perception. For many patients, vision therapy in Lodi, CA addresses the functional cause of eye turns rather than simply masking symptoms.
1. Eye Muscle SurgeryEye muscle surgery may be recommended to improve eye alignment. While surgery can straighten the eyes cosmetically, it does not always correct the underlying visual coordination problem. In many cases, surgery alone does not restore comfortable binocular vision and may require additional treatment.
2. Prism GlassesPrism lenses can help align images seen by the eyes, reducing double vision and eye strain. Prism glasses may be helpful for symptom relief but typically do not retrain the visual system or correct the cause of the eye turn.
3. Vision Therapy for Eye TurnsVision therapy is a non-surgical treatment for strabismus that retrains the brain and eyes to work together. Through guided, individualized exercises, vision therapy improves eye teaming, focusing, tracking, and depth perception. For many patients, vision therapy in Lodi, CA addresses the functional cause of eye turns rather than simply masking symptoms.
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The Fourth—and Most Common—Approach: No Treatment
Sadly, the most common approach to an eye turn is no treatment at all, especially when it is assumed to be purely cosmetic or untreatable. Left untreated, strabismus can impact depth perception, visual comfort, confidence, school performance, and work efficiency. Comprehensive Strabismus Treatment in Lodi, CA. Treating an eye turn is often complex and requires more than achieving straight eyes. A comprehensive functional vision evaluation is essential to determine the best course of treatment. If you are searching for strabismus treatment in Lodi, CA, or a practice that specializes in vision therapy for eye turns, our office focuses on restoring comfortable, efficient vision—not just appearance. |
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1. The oldest method is surgery to cut a muscle, causing the eye to move either inward toward the nose or outward toward the ear.
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What are the advantages? :
1. There is only one. It is quick. Although some include vision therapy after it is done to keep the eye in place. |
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What are the disadvantages (It is very invasive)?
1. It has a low cure rate of only 50% at best. One of the better studies showed the success rate in the teens. Also, a surgeon considers success with 20- degrees of a turn remaining. |
2. When you cut an eye muscle the heart beat stops, One year 50 children’s hearts did not start again. It was hard to find statistics after that. In Lodi, there is a girl who yearly thanks her eye surgeon for saving her life by restarting her heart on the operation table. The heart stopped as a result of his surgery.
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3. Both measuring of the turn and the amount to cut is not an exact science and often repeat surgeries are necessary. |
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4. There is a lot of blood during the surgery and adhesion's can lock the eye in place.
5. Although rare, death and other complications from anesthesia exist.
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6. The eye can be twisted, causing an unnatural change in eyeglass prescription, distortion, and disorientation.
7. If either of the superior or inferior oblique muscles is cut (often in large turns), one eye often looks higher than the other, often resulting in a head tilt |
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2. The next to oldest is prescribing prisms in your glasses to compensate for the turn.
What are the advantages? : 1. It also is quick. |
2. The complications of surgery are absent. It is non invasive.
What are the disadvantages? :
1. The thickness of the glasses making them unsightly. Even the striated lines of Fresnel thin prisms are unsightly and diminish clarity.
1. The thickness of the glasses making them unsightly. Even the striated lines of Fresnel thin prisms are unsightly and diminish clarity.
2 Dizziness is common and adaption can be difficult.
3.. Often the prism power must be increased over time
Methods 1 (surgery) And 2 (prisms) are based on a fallacy of a weak eye muscle. The theory is that the muscle is too weak to keep the eye aligned.
Dr. William Lancaster at the Dartmouth Eye Institute demonstrated more than 90 years ago that the eye muscles are at least 50 times stronger than necessary to move the eye.
Yet, you do not even need to read the study. Simply ask the person with an eye turn to move their eyes all the way to the left then to the right. You will see either eye turned all the way to the edge and vice versa. Thus there is no weak muscle.
An eye turn is a coordination condition not a faulty muscle. That leaves the third alternative.
An eye turn is a coordination condition not a faulty muscle. That leaves the third alternative.
3. Vision Therapy
What are the advantages? :
1. The complications of surgery are absent. It is non invasive.
What are the advantages? :
1. The complications of surgery are absent. It is non invasive.
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2. It has a higher success rate, 87% for an outward turn and 67% for an inward turn. It drops to 25% if previous surgery was done. This success rate is based on zero eye turn and binocularity, not a 20-degree margin.
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3. The eyes are truly functioning as a team and increased skills in learning, work, and athletics take place. Look at our success stories. |
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4. The results tend to last and even improve rather than regress. |
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5. It can actually be fun!
What are the disadvantages? : 1. It takes time and discipline. At least 12 office visits are required. |
Below is a colleague, Julie Steinhauer in Glen Carbon, IL with an interesting view of vision therapy and light therapy of which we also use to improve your life.