Squint

It’s not a sign of luck,
it’s a sign of poor vision.

It is an eye problem in which the eyes are not straight and are not correctly aligned and thus point in different directions. One eye may look straight ahead, while the other eye turns inward or outward or upward or downward.

The squint may be present throughout the day, or it may be intermittent, i.e. the squint may be seen only at certain times, such as when the child is tired or daydreaming, etc. It is usually present from birth but can occur later in life.

How do the eyes work together?

Six eye muscles, controlling eye movement, are attached to the outside of each eye. In each eye, two muscles move the eye from side to side. The other four muscles move it up or down and at an angle.

To focus the eyes on an object, all the muscles in each eye must work together in coordination with the other eye in a balanced manner. Failure of the eye muscles to work together causes squinting.

Early treatment can save vision

This condition must be diagnosed and corrected at an early age since children with uncorrected squint may go on to develop amblyopia. If the Squint is operated upon after the age of vision development, only a cosmetic result can be achieved as the eye-brain coordination has already developed by then, and the child will continue to see with only one eye even after the squint is corrected by surgery.

Adults and teenagers who develop squint at a later stage in life often have double vision because the brain is already trained to receive images from both eyes and hence when the squint develops the brain cannot ignore the image from the squinting eye. The best way to deal with the possible effects of screens on children’s eyes and vision is to help them set good habits for using screens. These tips are also good practices for adults and anyone with chronic dry eyes or eye strain.

Types of Squint

Esotropia

Young children with esotropia do not use their eyes together. In most cases, early surgery can align both eyes.

Exotropia

This is noticed most often when a child is focusing on distant objects. The exotropia may occur only from time to time, particularly when a child is daydreaming, ill or tired.

Accommodative Esotropia

When a child is young, he or she can use the eye muscles to focus the eyes to adjust for farsightedness, but the focusing effort (accommodation) needed to see clearly causes the eyes to cross.

Treatments

Eye exercises using the Synoptophore:

In some cases of mild muscle weakness, the eye muscles can be made stronger by doing exercises using a machine called the Synoptophore. A total of about 6 sessions of eye exercises will be required. These eye exercises will need to be carried out daily using the Synoptophore machine at the hospital. Each session requires about half an hour.

Surgery for Squint:

During surgery, the ophthalmologist makes a small incision in the tissue covering the eye to reach the eye muscles. The doctor may reposition certain muscles, depending on which direction the eye is turning. It may sometimes be necessary to perform surgery on both eyes.

Things to know:

Squint surgery is usually a safe and effective treatment for misalignment of the eyes.
It is not, however, a substitute for the requirement of glasses or amblyopia therapy, and these may be required even after surgery.
When squint surgery is performed on children, a general anaesthetic is required. Local anaesthesia is an option for adults.
The recovery is quite fast and most people can resume their normal activities within a few days.
After surgery, glasses or prisms may be useful.
In some cases, surgery is done in stages to keep the eyes straight.
As with any surgery, eye muscle surgery too has certain risks. These include under or over-correction, transient (temporary) double vision, infection and risks related to anaesthesia as well as other visual complications.

Botulinum Toxin:

Botulinum Toxin, a new drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for limited use, can be an alternative to eye muscle surgery for some individuals. An injection of this drug into an eye muscle temporarily relaxes the muscle, allowing the opposite muscle to tighten and straighten the eyes. Although the effects of the drug wear off after several weeks, in some cases the misalignment may be permanently corrected.

FAQS

Myopia or nearsightedness is a vision condition in which people can see near objects clearly, but objects farther away appear blurred.

Myopia occurs if the eyeball is too long or the cornea is too curved. As a result, light entering the eye is not focussed correctly, and distant objects look blurred.

Genetic factors: There is a greater than six-fold increased risk of myopia in children if both parents are myopic
Lack of outdoor activities
Prolonged reading or other close-up activities
Using computers or smart devices for long periods
Reading in dim light

Watch out for these indications:

Difficulty in seeing things on whiteboards/screen projections in the class
Excessive blinking
Frequent rubbing of eyes
Squinting/squeezing of the eyes
Preferring to sit close to the television
Holding books/objects close to the face
Headaches and eyestrain

SQUINT

It’s not a sign of luck,
it’s a sign of poor vision.

Types of Squint

Esotropia

Exotropia

Accommodative Esotropia

FAQS

K K Eye Institute, Pune

K K Eye Institute, Pune

RELATED SEARCHES

SQUINT

It’s not a sign of luck, it’s a sign of poor vision.

Types of Squint

Esotropia

Exotropia

Accommodative Esotropia

FAQS

K K Eye Institute, Pune

K K Eye Institute, Pune

RELATED SEARCHES

It’s not a sign of luck,
it’s a sign of poor vision.