Strabismus is more commonly referred to as crossed or wandering eyes. This occurs when one or both eyes turns in or out, or up or down. Signs of strabismus other than the eye turn itself are clumsiness, loss of depth perception, the ability to see 3D, and sometimes double vision.
Strabismus is caused because at some point during childhood development the brain didn't develop binocularity, the ability to use both eyes at the same time. Strabismus is usually present by the age of 2, but sometimes it is as late as 6 years old. Children are not the only people that can develop strabismus. Adults can develop strabismus after experiencing a traumatic brain injury such as a stroke.
Surgery does NOT correct strabismus. Since the brain never taught the eyes how to work together surgery doesn't fix this underlying cause. The brain will continue to compensate by shutting off one eye. Strabismus surgery is more of a cosmetic surgery than anything else.
The treatment for strabismus is vision therapy. Vision therapy corrects strabismus because it teaches the eyes how to aim together, and it trains the brain to recieve the images from both eyes at the same time. After vision therapy is completed the eyes now know what to do, so the results are permanent.
What is Amblyopia?
Amblyopia is more commonly referred to as lazy eye. This simply means that one eye has not developed normally and always has blurred vision. This is a dysfunction of the brain blocking vision from one eye because the two eyes can't work together.
Normally, during the first few months of a child's life the brain develops binocualrity, or the ability to fuse the 2 images being taken in into one image. Children that have amblyopia never developed binocularity, so the brain compensated by turning off one eye.
There are two common causes of amblyopia. The first is called Refractive Amblyopia and the second is called Strabismic Amblyopia. Refractive Amblyopia is when one eye is either more nearsighted or farsighted than the other. This usually develops early in life. Since one eye has blurry vision the brain stops using that eye instead of working harder to try to fuse the blurry and clear image together. The result is that the long term suppression of the blurry eye causes the vision to stop developing.
The second type of amblyopia is Strabismic Amblyopia. As you have read with Strabismus an eye is either pointing up, down, in, or out. This misalignment with the eyes causes the brain to take in two different images. Again instead of working harder to fuse, the brain shuts off the eye that is misaligned instead.
In order to begin correcting amblyopia, the child must make the lazy eye start working again. This is usually done by patching the strong eye. Patching alone usually provides only limited visual improvement, but combined with other activities there is a high success rate. Like strabismus vision therapy addressess the underlying cause of amblyopia, the inability to align and use both eyes together.
Testimonials
"My daughter had a "lazy eye" and couldn't see out of her left eye. We have seen AMAZING changes!! She enjoys school more. She is reading so much better. Her grades have improved tremendously. Both her eyes track together now. She is more confident!"
"She is reading better. Her right eye is not turning off as much. She has fewer headaches. She does not complain when she has to read."
"Declan's eye would turn in even with his glasses on, all throughout the day. After doing therapy for a while he could even take his glasses off and his eye wouldn't turn in for quite a while. His eyes seem to be much stronger and he has turned inot a great reader over the past months-even though he was only in kindergarden."
"Delpha's eyes are much stronger. We hardly ever see them cross anymore. Also, we have noticed that she doesn't get frustrated while learning like she used to!"
