Exotropia, a type of strabismus, is a binocular vision condition characterized by one or both eyes drifting outward (i.e. lazy eye). Surgery to clip the eye muscle(s) is the medically-accepted method of treatment to cosmetically straighten the eye(s). However, surgery does not address the reason the brain chose to allow the eye to turn in the first place. Since brain function is left out of the surgical treatment equation, subsequent surgeries to maintain cosmetic alignment are quite often necessary.
However, the vast majority of exotropes do not have faulty or damaged eye muscles! So why should surgery be the initial treatment option?
A more effective treatment involves the use of vision therapy, phototherapy, and lenses to retrain the brain so as to develop the eye teaming skills necessary for normal binocular vision. As the brain develops binocularity, the eyes straighten – without surgery.
Effective therapy involves a sequential approach to improving functioning visual skills. At Snider Therapy Centers, therapy for exotropia has been offered for close to thirty years with a success rate in the high 90 percentile range. And thankfully, the age of the patient has not been a limiting factor