Conditions Treated with Vision Therapy

Vision therapy is a personalized program designed to improve and correct visual skills. It's a non-surgical treatment that uses exercises to enhance the brain's ability to control eye alignment, eye movements, focusing abilities, and visual processing.
 

What is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy focuses on rectifying the issue at its root, rather than simply treating the symptoms. Vision therapy is about improving the coordination and teamwork of the eyes. To achieve this, a personalized treatment program is designed to enhance the brain's ability to control a wide range of visual skills.
 

How Does Vision Therapy Work?

Vision therapy uses exercises to change the way you perceive and process visual information. It's a progressive program that moves you through various stages of treatment, each stage building on the successes of the previous stages.
 

Vision therapy exercises involve the use of lenses, prisms, filters, computerized visual activities, and non-computerized viewing instruments. Non-medical "tools," such as balance boards, metronomes, and other devices can also play an important role in a customized vision therapy program.
 

The length of the treatment program varies depending on your individual visual needs. Typically, the program lasts between six months to one year, with the patient participating in one-on-one sessions with the therapist weekly or bi-weekly.
 

Common Eye Conditions Treated by Vision Therapy

Vision therapy is used to treat a variety of common eye conditions. These conditions include strabismus (crossed eyes), amblyopia (lazy eye), and various reading and learning disabilities related to vision problems. Vision therapy can also be effective in the treatment of adult convergence insufficiency, a condition where the eyes do not work together when reading or doing close work.
 

Strabismus and amblyopia, for instance, have traditionally been treated with eye surgery. However, vision therapy provides a non-surgical alternative that targets the root of the problem—the brain's control of the eyes. By retraining the brain's ability to control eye alignment, eye movement, and focus, vision therapy can often correct these conditions without the need for surgery.
 

Reading and learning disabilities often have a visual component. Conditions such as dyslexia can be caused, in part, by an inability to properly track along a line of text. Vision therapy uses exercises to improve this tracking ability, which can result in improved reading and learning capabilities.
 

How to Get Started with Vision Therapy

The first step is to schedule a comprehensive eye examination. This exam will evaluate not only your visual acuity but also how well your eyes work together, and how well your eyes focus.
 

If the results of this examination suggest that you could benefit from vision therapy, the next step is a vision evaluation. This evaluation will take a deeper look at your visual system and will help your eye doctor to design a personalized treatment plan.
 

Conclusion

Vision therapy is a powerful tool in the treatment of many common eye conditions. With its non-invasive, holistic approach, vision therapy addresses the root cause of these conditions, leading to more effective and long-lasting results.
 

For more information on vision therapy, visit Glenpool Eye Care at our office in Glenpool, Oklahoma. Please call (918) 233-8400 to schedule an appointment today.