Squint Treatment Perth

What is a squint

When looking at an object, most people have both eyes pointed straight at the object they are looking at. A squint (also known as Strabismus) is a condition that causes an adult or child’s eyes to point in different directions.

Squints – Potential causes and risk factors

Squints risk and cause factors may include:

• • Misalignment of the two eyes
  • Neural imbalance – Imbalance of how the brain coordinates the two eyes
  • Nerve weakness causing specific eye muscle weakness
  • Abnormal strength and or weakness of eye muscles – May cause motor imbalance
  • Anything that may obscure vision in one eye
  • Family history
  • Prematurity and complicated obstetrics history
  • Lazy eye (also called Amblyopia)
  • Other vision loss.

Squints may affect depth perception (stereopsis), and cause cosmetic concerns and or social issues in childhood, and double vision (diplopia) in children and adults.

Potential causes of pterygium

The potential causes of pterygium may include:

• • Excessive exposure to UV light
  • Dust, wind and air pollution and;
  • Hereditary factors.

Squint treatment

Non-surgical treatments

Non-surgical treatments may include a combination of:

• • Eye patch – Covering the good eye to force use of the lazy eye.
  • Eye glasses
  • Eye drops
  • Eye exercises.

Surgical treatment

Squint surgery aims to re-align the eyes toward normal. Squint surgery is only recommended if the above treatments fail to work.

Squint surgery involves tightening the weak muscles and/or loosening the stronger ones so that the eye/s are positioned better. Absorbable sutures hold muscles in their new positions until eyes are fully healed.

Surgery is most commonly performed as a day procedure under a general anaesthetic. Sometimes both eyes need to be operated upon.

The risks and benefits of Squint surgery are dependent on your individual diagnosis. Your doctor will discuss the treatment options available to you.

WA Eye Specialists

Squints generally do not correct themselves and have the potential to reduce the development of visual depth perception that is required for everyday activities such as sports or driving.

Early detection and treatment of squints in children and adults is vital when it can still be partially or totally reversed using a combination of corrective glasses, eye patches and eye drops or surgical intervention.

If you have any questions about Squints or would like to book an appointment please: 

Squint Treatment Perth

Our ophthalmologists treat a wide range of eye conditions including squints. Our eye doctors see patients for all over Perth including Armadale, Joondalup, Midland, Murdoch and South Perth.