Eye Turns, Crossed Eyes, & Lazy Eye
Many children and adults are diagnosed with eye turn problems commonly called lazy eye, crossed eyes or wandering eye. Recommended treatments in the past have often included constant patching or surgery to “strengthen” or “straighten” the affected eye.
The success of these treatments leaves most patients with residual eye teaming, eye tracking, focusing and perceptual problems, often with a recurrence of the original eye turn, or in some cases, a slightly different eye turn. Vision therapy is an effective and lasting non-surgical treatment. It does not include constant patching, which can have a significant negative effect on a child’s self-esteem.
Let’s clarify the terminology:
Amblyopia: An eye that has reduced sight compared to the other eye.
Strabismus: This is a problem with eye alignment, where both eyes are not looking at the same place.
These 2 conditions can occur at the same time, but not always. In a Vision therapy program, eye exercises, lenses, and other therapy activities are used to treat the brain and nervous system which control the eye muscles.