Treatment for strabismus in adults is usually started with the use of glasses or contact lenses to correct vision difficulties that may be causing or aggravating the problem. However, when this type of treatment is not enough, the ophthalmologist may recommend doing eye exercises once a week in the hospital, and daily at home, to improve the coordination of muscles and help to focus objects better.
In the most severe cases, in which it is not possible to correct strabismus just with the use of glasses and eye exercises, it may be necessary to use surgery to balance the eye muscles and correct the misalignment.
What causes
Strabismus can be caused by defects in 3 different locations:
- In the muscles that move the eyes; In the nerves that transmit information from the brain to the muscles to move; In the portion of the brain that controls eye movement.
For this reason, strabismus can appear in children, when the problem is related to the lack of development of one of these places, which happens frequently in cases of Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, for example or in adults, due to problems such as Accident Cerebral vascular, head trauma, or even a blow to the eye.
Strabismus can be of 3 types, divergent strabismus, when the eye deviation is outward, that is, towards the side of the face, convergent strabismus, when the eye is deviated towards the nose, or vertical strabismus, if the eye is shifted up or down.
What is surgery
Generally, surgery for strabismus is done in the operating room with general anesthesia, so that the doctor can make small cuts in the muscles of the eye to balance forces and align the eye.
In most cases, this surgery does not cause scarring and recovery is relatively quick. See when to have surgery for strabismus and what the risks are.
How to correct strabismus with exercises
A good exercise that helps to coordinate the eye muscles and improve strabismus consists of:
- Place a finger extended about 30 cm from the nose; Place a finger of the other hand between the nose and the finger extended; Look at the finger that is closest and focus that finger until you observe the finger that is farthest in duplicate; the finger that is closer, slowly, between the nose and the finger that is farthest away, always trying to focus the closest finger to observe the finger that is furthest duplicated;
This exercise should be repeated 2 to 3 minutes every day, but the ophthalmologist can also advise other exercises to complete the treatment at home.
When the treatment is not done properly in childhood, the person can develop amblyopia, which is a vision problem where the affected eye usually sees less than the other eye, because the brain creates a mechanism to ignore the different image that it comes through that eye.
Therefore, treatment should be started on the baby right after the diagnosis of the problem, by placing an eye patch on the healthy eye, in order to compel the brain to use only the misaligned eye and develop the muscles on that side.. See more about treatment for child strabismus.
