1. What is strabismus or squint?
A. Strabismus or squint is a condition in which the eyes do not align with each other while looking at an object. It is a problem with either the extraocular muscle or the nerves supplying them.
2. Can squint develop in adults? And how?
A.Yes. It can manifest as a result of
- Long-sightedness/short-sightedness.
- Nervous diseases such as Bell’s palsy, 3rd Nerve palsy, stroke, etc.
- Eye trauma or past eye surgery.
- People who are blind in one eye.
3. Can adult squint be cured/improved by eye exercises?
A.No, it cannot be corrected with exercises alone. Exercises are used along with the therapy.
4. Is there anything that can be done about squint in adults?
A. Treatment of certain cases of squint in adults includes surgical and non-surgical options. Non-surgical includes using prismatic glasses, patching (occlusion) prisms, botulinum toxin injection, monocular occlusion or fogging.
5. Is lazy eye curable at 50 plus years?
A. Yes, there are treatment options available. And age should not be a hindrance. There are surgeries done even at 85 years of age. It can vastly improve the quality of life of an individual. But the amount of correction achieved varies among individuals.
6. What are the risks? How safe is the operation to cure lazy eye/squint for an adult?
A. The most common risk involved is over-correction or under-correction of the condition, which may warrant additional surgery. However, the risks involving anesthesia, postoperative infections and loss of vision are rare.
7. Is the surgery to cover strabismus painful?
A. You may experience some pain the first 24 hours after surgery. In general, patients experience soreness or redness. They can be easily managed with pain medications.
8. What’s the exact procedure? How does it work?
A. The procedure is like simple physics, one muscle is let loose and the other one is made tighter. It is like a game of tug of war.
- In squint, there is a tug of war between two muscles, which want to move the eyes in different positions. This causes an imbalance and a problem, sometimes even double vision, at other times, a lazy eye. In squint surgery, the balance between the two opposing muscles is restored and they are made tighter or looser as necessary, to make sure they move in sync with each other once again.
- Rarely, the doctor may want to operate on even the non-squint eye for the sake of balance. It is best to have faith in the doctor’s decision and not get too worried in such a case. Squint surgery has very promising results and is one of the commonest cosmetic eye surgeries performed worldwide.
Getting the surgery is a major confidence booster and can add to your personality, bringing out the best version of you. There’s no need to be afraid, make an informed decision and plan your surgery at the earliest.
Get in touch with Dr. Nikhil Nasta today.
