Do you know the dangers of strabismus?

Some parents think that their children's strabismus is not a serious problem and there is no need to see a doctor; or they think that their children are still young and it is safer to wait until their children grow up and their eyes are fully developed before going to the hospital for treatment of strabismus... At this time, do you who are reading this article have the same idea? The editor tells you seriously: you are totally wrong!

Understanding strabismus

Strabismus refers to the phenomenon that the coordination disorder of the extraocular muscles leads to an imbalance in the strength of the extraocular muscles. The visual axes of the two eyes cannot focus on the same target at the same time. Only one eye focuses on the target, while the other eye's visual axis deviates to one side of the target.

Depending on the state of strabismus fusion function, it can be divided into explicit and implicit.

Manifest strabismus

When both eyes are looking at the same time, one eye is deviated. Except for a small number of cases with smaller degrees or special types of manifest strabismus that can be corrected by wearing glasses, most cases of manifest strabismus require surgery to treat, so it is important to seek medical attention in a timely manner.

Invisible strabismus

When one eye is covered, the covered eye appears to be deviated. Most people have some degree of latent strabismus. Small degrees of latent strabismus have no effect on daily life and can be controlled through fusion function. It can usually be treated through visual training, increasing the fusion range, or wearing special glasses such as prisms.

According to the direction of strabismus, it can be divided into esotropia, exotropia, hypertropia, hypotropia and rotational strabismus.

The dangers of strabismus

Affects the development of bones throughout the body

Some children with paralytic strabismus often use special head positions such as tilting their heads or turning their faces sideways to overcome the discomfort when seeing things due to paralysis of their eye muscles. This is medically called "compensatory head position". Long-term "compensatory head position" can lead to malformation of the whole body's bones, causing scoliosis and facial crookedness.

Visual impairment

Most strabismus patients are prone to strabismic amblyopia, which leads to poor vision. Even if the vision of strabismus patients is normal, when looking at things, because one eye is deviated, they can only use one eye to focus on the target, and their field of vision is far less than that of normal people. More importantly, strabismus patients have no ability of fusion and stereoscopic vision.

Clinical manifestations

The causes of strabismus are complex, involving various theories such as eye adjustment function and family inheritance. Some babies are born with strabismus, while others develop strabismus a few months after birth. So, how can parents detect strabismus in their children from the slightest clues?

Lack of concentration, eyes tend to wander, drift away, and drift upward;

Fear of light, squinting in the sun;

Due to lack of three-dimensional vision, walking down stairs is slow and prone to bumping into things;

Tilting head to see things, easy visual fatigue, reading in series or skipping words;

Zhu Lina, director of Tianjin University Aier Eye Hospital, said that strabismus will not disappear with age. Before the age of 3, children's vision and visual function develop rapidly, and refractive correction, vision training, and surgical correction can achieve better treatment results. It is relatively difficult to restore visual function after the age of 12. Therefore, once parents find that their children have strabismus, they should take their children to professional ophthalmological medical institutions for early detection and treatment to avoid delaying treatment and causing visual function damage.