Can Vision Therapy Fix Strabismus or Lazy Eye Without Surgery?

If you have Strabismus, you've probably wondered if vision therapy is something that could work for you

It's definitely a hot topic right now in the Strabismis community is something that might fix an eye turn without having to have surgery

The problem is that you've got all these professionals that give completely opposite opinions

You've got ophthalmologists who say vision therapy never works and it was a waste of time and money

Then you've got developmental optometrists who say, why would you ever have surgery when you can fix the cause of the problem with vision therapy and make the eye straight naturally

And so it leaves people like us in the middle wondering who's right, what's the right answer? Can vision therapy actually works

So in this video, I'm going to go through a few different cases and different types of strabismus and talk about whether vision therapy is effective at, you know, treating it or not

The truth is that sometimes it does work and sometimes it doesn't

It depends on the type of Strabismis and so many different factors

So real quick, for just a couple of quick definitions, Strabismis can either, it just basically means that your eyes are not pointed in the same direction

So you either usually have exotropia. Here's a picture. Or you have esotropia

Here's a picture. of that. There's a lot of different scenarios and situations where vision therapy is way more

successful and quicker and easier and others where it's more difficult. So first we're going to look

at a child versus an adult. So if you take a young child, their visual system hasn't fully developed

yet. And so they're a lot more flexible and pliable in their side of their brain. So when it comes to correcting

amblyopia and strengthening another eye or teaching both eyes to work together, the brain is much more

willing to latch on to that with a younger child. Is it possible with adults? Absolutely. I never saw

3D in my entire life. And after vision therapy, yes, I can now see 3D. I can pass stereo tests at the

doctor's office. It's not perfect and it's been really hard work, but it is possible. Just much

easier for a child And the second one is when you got Strabismus So if you are born with Strobismus that called infantile usually infantile isotropia is what infants are born with And technically they not born with it It just develops really early within the first few months of life

That is a lot harder because in those, that first few months of life, that's when the brain figures out how to use both eyes

And it's really a critical period. They call it the critical period

And it's true. So for those cases, it's a lot harder. without surgery and I guess I shouldn't say every but most cases of infantile esotropia are going to

require surgery at some point vision therapy still can completely help teach both eyes to work together

so that they stay straight but you know I was born here's a picture so I was born with an I turn of

55 diopters in that is huge and very very difficult to overcome with

vision therapy alone. So even vision therapists will say yes, those cases usually are going to end up

needing surgery. Now, on the other hand, if the Strobismus didn't develop until a little bit later

maybe age one or two or even five, six, seven, those cases are a lot easier to treat because

the brain usually has developed some sort of two-eyed vision early on. In those early

formative years where the brain's developing all these connections, your brain was working

and doing that. And so even if now your eye is turned out and you're completely suppressing

one eye and you're only using one eye, re-learning how to use both eyes is a lot easier than

learning it for the first time, especially as an adult. So if it came on later, that's a lot easier

than if it came on right when you were born. The next is intermittent versus constant. So intermittent

means that sometimes the eyes are straight, sometimes it's out. Sometimes it's straight. Sometimes it's

out. That would be if it was exotropia. Other times it's intermittent and it's going in and back and forth

And sometimes this will happen with kids just because the glass, they need glasses. They need glasses

A prescription that makes focusing up close easier or in the distance. There's a few different reasons I'm not going to go into why that I turn is happening too much

But a lot of times just glasses can help that. And vision therapy can just

make it kind of be the cement that holds it all together. And so in those cases when it's

intermittent almost never need surgery Sometimes you do I have one of my best friends is an adult who had surgery as a kid for intermittent exotropia and to this day her eyes are straight and are working really well together So I not here to say that surgery is a horrible option and you should never do it for intermittent exotopia or isotropia but almost always it can be completely fixed with just vision therapy because the eyes do know how to work together and stay straight They just need to be strengthened and become more fine in their ability to stay that

way. On the other hand, if it's a constant esotropia or exotropia that never comes in, your eyes are

never straight, that's again harder because the brain doesn't know how to use both eyes together

most likely. Or it's really, really, really out of practice at using both eyes. So those cases are

going to take longer. You know, instead of nine months to a year of vision therapy, it might take

two years of vision therapy or three or who knows how long. So is it possible? Absolutely

Is it going to take longer? Yes. And this kind of leads me to the next thing. If the eye turn is

super severe, like what we call a large angle. So they say my ophthalmologist says between 15 and 20

degrees. Optometrist may say something different, but it's within 15 degrees, it's much easier

for you for you to fix your eye turn with with vision therapy and no surgery. If the

turns bigger than that, you know, 30, 35, that's where I was at. Those cases, even though I

learned to straighten my eyes, to hold them there was, felt impossible. And so surgery helped me

to make it so my eyes were straight most of the time. And still, my eyes, I still have esotropia

If you're looking at me thinking, wondering, you know, are her eyes straight or not, I actually

have an esotropia of about 12 degrees. So it's not as noticeable to the naked

it still makes a difference but vision therapy is definitely working because it's the lower

angle and another thing to consider is whether or not it's alternating from eye to eye a lot of times

when it's alternating from eye to eye that one eye is looking you know sometimes your right eyes

is the one focusing sometimes the left eye is focusing those cases are a little bit easier because

there's more of a normal correspondence between what is straightforward for each eye and so

not always but usually that a little bit easier and then lastly if you have amblyopia super low vision in one of your eyes um again this is going to matter if they really really young it going to be a lot easier to get the acuity much better

For adults, it is harder, but it's possible. And your eyes can learn to work together through vision therapy

So if you're going through this and wondering what in the world are they even going to do in vision therapy

vision therapy is going to be a series of tests, not tests

sorry, exercises and there are tests. Sometimes they use virtual reality. There's computer programs

There's special lenses. There's prisms. There's all sorts of different exercises and things that they do to help teach your brain

to use the information that's coming in through each eye. And as your brain learns to use that information from both eyes, it makes them want to be

straight because straight eyes are eyes that are working together. And so vision therapy is a super powerful tool

The more complicated the case with a constant, large angle, esotropia that's been there since birth

those more complicated cases, a lot of times are going to require surgery and vision therapy

combined to get the full binocular vision and eyes that are working perfectly and seamlessly together

But more simple cases that are lower angle or intermittent that came on later, those cases

can be easily treated with vision therapy, and I highly recommend you doing that

If you wanna know if your eyes are working well together, I have made a test that is available on my website

if you go to Strabismiss Solutions.com slash test. And it's just a fun little test

where you can kind of see, are both of my eyes already working together

or is one eye stronger? Do I have 3D? So those are some fun tests

that might help you gain more awareness. And if you wanna know more details

about like a specific, diagnosis, accommodated of isotropia or intermittent exotropia. I have more details about each

diagnosis on my website at Sturbismiss Solutions.com slash fix. So I hope you guys all learn something

in this video and learn that yes, vision therapy can definitely help treat Sturrismus, but sometimes

when it's super severe, you are going to require, it is going to require surgery and be more

difficult and time consuming. So it's been totally worth it for me. I recommend it 10 out of 10

because I love being able to see the world using both my eyes. So I know you will too and I hope you

enjoy this video. We'll see you later