What Are Your Options for Lazy Eye Treatments?

Whether you call it crossed eyes, lazy eye, or strabismus, it’s a common condition affecting many children and adults. It affects around 13 million people in the United States alone.

If you have this in childhood, there’s a chance that it will get better on its own. But if it doesn’t, what can you do to correct this condition?

Let’s take a brief look at the options for lazy eye treatments.

What Causes a Lazy Eye?

In children, lazy eye is caused by eyesight problems. The brain does not process the signals from the eye correctly. It favors the stronger eye, and the weaker one becomes lazier.

In adults, the most common causes of lazy eye are stroke and head injuries.

How to Correct a Lazy Eye

Lazy eye surgery is an option for correcting this condition. But first, there are other lazy eye treatments people can try.

Corrective Eyewear

As a lazy eye is caused by eyesight problems, it makes sense that corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses can help. They do this by correcting the vision so that the eyes find it easier to focus.

This relieves the strain on the eyes and may help them to remain straight.

Eye Exercises

Often, eye exercises are all that is needed to correct strabismus. This is true whether the sufferer is an adult or a child.

In children, a form of exercise that is often used is patching. This exercise covers up the strong eye with an eye patch. The idea is that the weaker eye then has to work harder.

This will then strengthen the muscles and the eyes will even out.

Some common exercises to treat a lazy eye include pencil push-ups, the Brock string, and barrel cards.

Medications for Lazy Eye

Children are sometimes prescribed eye drops to treat lazy eye. This temporarily blurs the vision in the stronger eye. This allows the weaker eye an opportunity to take over and become stronger.

Sometimes a doctor may use Botox injections. This muscle relaxant can cause an overactive eye muscle to relax, correcting the lazy eye.

Lazy Eye Surgery

If you choose to have a lazy eye procedure, it will focus on adjusting your eye muscles so that they can hold the eye in place correctly.

You will have a general anesthetic, and the surgeon will make adjustments based on your individual needs. Some forms of surgery involve having further adjustments after surgery.

Is strabismus surgery worth it? That depends on your personal circumstances. If it is badly affecting your self-confidence and other methods have not worked, it could be a very good option.

The Best Lazy Eye Treatments

Depending on the severity of the condition, you may be able to treat a lazy eye simply with exercise or glasses. But if this does not work, surgical lazy eye treatments can be a good option.

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