When Should I Go To Ophthalmologist..!
How To Care About My Contact Lenses..!
Detection and Diagnosis
Children should be
examined by the family doctor, pediatrician, or ophthalmologist
during infancy
and preschool years
to detect potential eye
problems. This is
particularly important if
a relative has had
strabismus or amblyopia.
In infants it is
often difficult to determine
the difference between eyes that appear
to be crossed and true strabismus. Young children often have a wide,
flat nose and a fold of skin at the inner eyelid
that tends to hide
the eye during side gaze,
causing the eyes to
appear crossed. This
appearance of
strabismus may improve as the child grows.
True strabismus is
not outgrown.
An
ophthalmologist can readily
distinguish true
from false strabismus.
Treatment
Treatment goals for strabismus are to
preserve vision, to
straighten the eyes, and
to restore binocular
vision. Depending on
the cause of the
strabismus, treatment may involve repositioning the unbalanced eye
muscles, removing a cataract, or correcting
other conditions which are causing
the eyes to turn. After a
complete eye examination,
including a detailed study of the inner parts of the eye, an
ophthalmologist can recommend appropriate optical,
medical or surgical therapy. Covering
or patching the good eye to improve
vision in the amblyopic eye is often necessary.
Esotropia
The two most common
types of strabismus are esotropia and
exotropia.
Esotropia
describes an inward turning eye and is the
most common type of
strabismus in infants.
Young children with esotropia do
not use their eyes
together. In most cases,
early surgery to
align the eyes is needed to obtain binocular vision and prevent permanent
vision loss.
During surgery, the
tension of the eye muscle in one or both eyes
is adjusted. For
example, in surgery
for esotropia, the tight
inner muscles may he
removed from the
wall of the eye and
placed further back on the eye. This weakens their pull and allows
the eyes to
move outward. Sometimes the
outer muscles are
tightened by shortening the muscle length to allow the eyes to
move outward.
Accommodative Esotropia
Accommodative
esotropia is a common
form of esotropia
which occurs in farsighted
children, usually two or older.
When a child is
young, they can focus their eyes to adjust for the farsightedness but
the focusing effort (accommodation) required to see clearly stimulates
the eyes to
cross.
Glasses reduce the focusing effort and can straighten the eyes. Sometimes bifocals are necessary for close work. Eye drops, ointment or special lenses called prisms can also be used to straighten the eyes. Eye exercises occasionally help
older children.