Understanding Which Eye Conditions Vision Therapy Can And Cannot Help

If you or your child has a vision problem, then you may try to seek out as many treatments as possible to help your son or daughter. In your search for a treatment, you may have learned about vision therapy. Vision therapy is a treatment conducted by a doctor to help the visual system correct itself. This occurs through a series of activities and the eyes are then strengthened. Visual acuity is assisted greatly through the use of vision therapy. Visual therapy cannot assist with every type of vision problem though. Keep reading to learn about a few conditions that may not be helped with the treatment so you can focus on your child's health.

Nearsightedness

Nearsightedness is a visual acuity issue that makes it difficult to see objects far away in the distance. The condition is sometimes called myopia and it is a refractive problem where light and images do not fall onto the retina properly. Specifically, the images focus in front of the retina. This problem occurs as the eyeball becomes elongated. This is a physical problem that cannot be repaired. Glasses are typically worn to help focus images back further within the eye so they hit the retina correctly. Glasses are used in this way to treat the problem without actually fixing it. In most cases, myopia issues will worsen until you become a young adult.

While vision therapy cannot be used to treat myopia specifically, certain vision therapy activities can be used to reduce the eye strain that comes with nearsighted issues. Eye strain is often a condition that develops due to the overuse of the eye muscles. Vision therapy activities can strengthen the muscles to reduce soreness associated with eye strain. This is often something that is considered to assist children who have recently started wearing glasses and experience some discomfort when wearing them and also when taking them off at night.

One of the vision therapy activities that is suggested is also one used to improve hand and eye coordination. It is typically referred to as a pencil push up and involves focusing on a pencil point as it is moved closer and farther away from the face. 

Eye Turn Disorders

If you have a child that was born with a crossed eye condition or a serious misalignment of one or both the eyes, then it is possible that surgical intervention as well as the use of injections, patches, and glasses must be used to correct the condition. These things may also be a requirement for adult eye turning and misalignment issues that worsen over time. Many of these problems happen due to the weakness of the eye muscles and the way that one or both eyes turn down or towards the nose. 

While many serious eye turn or misalignment disorders require surgical or advanced medical treatment, the eye or eyes will likely need to be retrained once the muscle issue is resolved. Retraining can be completed with a vision therapy regimen. The activities will likely include the use of tools like graphs, word diagrams, balls, strings, wands and other objects to encourage certain eye movements. 

Vision therapy activities can sometimes be used to assist mild misalignment issues like lazy eye. An eye doctor will need to determine the severity of the misalignment first to figure out if vision therapy activities are enough to completely assist with the issue. 

If you or your child has a vision problem, then you may seek out certain types of treatments to help resolve the issue. Vision therapy is a treatment that can assist some problems, but not others. It is best to seek out assistance from your eye doctor or visit websites like http://www.absolutevisioncare.com to learn whether not the therapy is right for you or your loved one.