Strabismus or “Squint” is caused by the failure of the eye muscles to work together causing the eyes to be misaligned. In a child who has squint, one or both eyes may turn in, out, up or down. The brain corrects resulting double vision by using the better eye to see, and suppressing the squinting eye. This needs to be corrected at the earliest, as delay in treatment can cause permanent visual impairment. Treatment could be glasses, patching, home eye exercises or work ups on VTS4 system. In few children this needs to be followed up by a surgery to straighten the eyes. Surgery is ideally advised around the age of 4 yrs. and it may be on one or both eyes. It is a very safe extra ocular procedure performed under general Anesthesia and at dr. Sreekanth eye care & research centre it is always done under Operating Microscope.

Amblyopia or “lazy eye” is a condition where the eye is structurally normal but vision is reduced, due to inadequate visual stimulus in childhood. Uncorrected squint, asymmetrical uncorrected refractive errors, cataract etc. can lead to amblyopia. With early detection, the lazy eye can be corrected.

Eye injuries in children can cause eye damage which can be prevented by: Supervising children while using sharper objects. Keeping your child away from hazardous objects, medicines, chemicals, cleaning agents and sprays. Giving your child protective eye wear during sports, recreation and lab activities.