Strabismus (squint/cross eyed) treatment

Non-surgical strabismus treatment

Corrective contact lenses or glasses: Patients with a mild case of strabismus might see an improvement in their eyesight just by changing their prescription, either with contact lenses or glasses.²
Use of prism lenses: These are special lenses that can be used for cross-eye correction. A prism lens has a thicker structure and a thinner structure and, depending on the direction it needs to be placed, the thicker structure can either be on the outside or inside. If the prescription of the lenses and/or prisms is low you might not be able to tell the difference from ordinary glasses. This unique lens structure enables the prism to allow light into the eye and reduces the eye's misdirection when looking at objects. With frequent use, the eyes may turn outwards or inwards less and less, possibly even curing their strabismus.³,⁴,⁵
Vision therapy: With this kind of cross-eyed treatment, your optometrist uses visual activity to improve and correct your eye coordination and alignment. The eyes are trained to work in synchronisation with the brain, by forcing the eye to respond to the brain's signals and vice versa.⁶

Surgical strabismus treatment

Eye muscle surgery: Strabismus surgery (squint surgery) is more invasive than non-surgical strabismus treatment. In eye muscle surgery, the ophthalmologist will focus on the length and strength of the six fundamental muscles around your eyes responsible for controlling eye movement. It will help the eyes appear straight, be properly aligned and look in the right direction. Additional therapy may be needed post-surgery to further strengthen eye muscles and prevent them from becoming misaligned again. Depending on the intensity of a patient's squint, eye surgery may be needed more than once to fix the condition. This strabismus treatment surgery can help to prevent amblyopia or lazy eye.⁸,⁹

With strabismus (cross-eye) surgery, misalignment can be corrected in both children and adults; however, you may still have a slight degree of amblyopia even after surgery. For this reason, optometrists recommend patients with strabismus not to delay the strabismus treatment surgery, as this might increase the risk of developing other eye conditions and diseases.¹⁰ After the age of 14, squint correction surgery is mostly beneficial only for cosmetic reasons.

Strabismus treatment using surgery can fix the eye’s misalignment and can improve visual acuity. This helps your eyes to work together and can prevent you from suffering health symptoms such as frequent migraines, strained eyes, eye pressure and fatigue, as well as improving your appearance.¹¹

Medically reviewed by Dan McGhee on September 29, 2022

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Back to overview What is strabismus?

Strabismus (squint/cross eyed) treatment

Surgical strabismus treatment

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