Don't Ignore Crossed Eyes: Your Vision Is Already At Risk

Generally, six muscles around each healthy eye move it in coordination with the brain for visual outcomes. When this coordination is disturbed due to an issue with the movement of the eye muscles and nerves, this problem occurs and promotes several visual complications.

different factors responsible for the development of this disease:

• Congenital or Genetic Factors: Premature birth or problems with the mother during pregnancy. A person with a family history of this problem.
• Imbalance of Eye Muscles: Here, muscles around the eyes become too strong, too weak, or poorly coordinated and cause one eye to deviate.
• Brain–Eye Coordination Problem: If the brain becomes unable to send proper signals to the eye muscles, the eyes cannot move together.
• Uncorrected Refractive Errors: High spectacle power for correcting refractive vision errors.
• Eye Injury or Trauma: Injury or surgery in the eyes or brain.
• Neurological or Medical Conditions: Stroke, brain tumours, nerve palsy, diabetes, or infections.

Impact in Everyday Life

Strabismus affects the overall quality of life through the following problems:

• Vision complications: The main effect is vision problems, and they may be serious.
• Difficulty in daily activities: Everyday work may become difficult due to weak eye coordination.
• Learning troubles: Children may face problems in reading and writing.
• Psychological effect: It can affect self-confidence and may create anxiety and stress in the mind.
• Problem in jobs: Adults may experience difficulties in getting a job because accurate vision is important in job selection.
• Social Impacts: Crossed eyes can affect eye contact and communication, which may lead to social discomfort or avoidance.

• Misaligned eyes in vision
• Double vision
• Eye strain
• Headache or head tilting
• Blurred vision
• Closing or covering one eye
• Difficulty in reading and concentrating
• Irritation or eye fatigue

Serious eye diseases:

Strabismus promotes several serious eye complications, which can lead to permanent blindness if not treated promptly. The diseases are :

• Amblyopia (Lazy Eye): Here, the brain starts to ignore the visual response from the deviated eye, causing a permanent reduction of vision.
• Double vision (diplopia): Seeing double images of a single object permanently.
• Loss of Binocular Vision: Permanent loss of three-dimensional(3D) vision.
• Poor Depth Perception: Difficulty in judging distance, which can affect daily activities throughout life.
• Abnormal Head Posture: Long-term head tilting may happen, and it can lead to neck or posture problems.

Tests

Medical detection of strabismus at an early age is essential for effective treatment. Usually, a squint specialist performs the following squint eye screenings-

• Visual Acuity Test
• Alternate Cover Test
• Hirschberg Test (Corneal Light Reflex Test)
• Krimsky Test
• Prism Bar Cover Test
• Ocular Motility Examination
• Worth Four Dot Test
• Refraction Test (Cycloplegic Refraction)
• Fundus Examination
• Synoptophore Test

Treatment for Strabismus

Early treatment is vital to prevent cross eyes-related serious eye diseases and improve cosmetic appearance because the visual system generally develops during childhood. Effective treatments for squint eyes include the following procedures based on the types and severity of the complication:

• Medications: Ophthalmologists often prescribe eye drops, oral pills, and injections in the treatment.
• Eyeglasses: Are also recommended by eye doctors for correcting refractive vision errors to treat crossed eyes.
• Prism Lenses: Eye care professionals use these special lenses for strabismus patients to treat this visual disorder.
• Vision Therapy: Many vision therapies are performed by eye specialists in this treatment.
• Eye Surgery: Eye surgeons may go for surgeries to correct eye alignment by adjusting the position of the eye muscles when non-surgical methods cannot work effectively. Presently, the following procedures of squint eye surgery are easily available in Kolkata:
• Recession Surgery
• Resection Surgery
• Plication Surgery
• Adjustable Suture
• Tucking Surgery
• Faden Surgery
• Vertical Muscle Surgery
• Oblique Muscle Surgery

Exercise

Regular practice of the following eye exercises, recommended by eye experts or pediatric ophthalmologists, can play a supportive role in improving eye coordination and visual results.

Pencil Push-Ups:

Hold a pencil at arm's length and focus on it. Therefore, slowly move it towards the nose and then move it back out. Repeat multiple times a day to improve convergence.

Barrel Cards:

Fix a card with a concentric circle against your nose and focus on it from the far barrel to the near barrel. It helps your eyes to work together.

Brock String Exercise:

Take a string with colored beads at your eye level and focus on each bead along the string. It improves eye teaming and depth perception.

Near and Far Focus:

It is performed by focusing between a near object and a distant one alternately. It enhances the focusing abilities of the eyes.