Correcting Your Vision With Neurovisual Medicine

Neurovisual medicine is a form of treatment that identifies and treats patients with binocular vision dysfunction (BVD). The specialty helps your optometrist treat this condition using microprism lenses.

 

What Is Binocular Vision Dysfunction?

Some individuals can only see one clear image from one eye, but not one clear image from both at the same time. The condition is called binocular vision. The brain is complex and intricate and can turn two images into a clear one. But for this to occur, your eyes must be in perfect alignment. People with good binocular vision have eyes that coordinate well. As a result, their eyes send focused images to their brains.

 

Binocular vision dysfunction is when your eyes do not work together in perfect synchrony. Individuals with this condition struggle to see clearly. Their eyes send two separate images to their brain, and the brain cannot accept such a situation. As a result, it forces the aligning muscles of the eye to fix the issue by realigning the eyes. 

 

The realignment only occurs temporarily, then misalignment recurs. This triggers a continuous cycle of alignment and misalignment. Your brain will begin to believe that things are in motion. As a result, your eye muscles strain, making your eyes sore and tired. 

 

Causes of Binocular Vision Dysfunction

BVD can result from brain injury, stroke, or other neurological disorders. The condition manifests at any time, but its symptoms usually develop when individuals get in their 40s. Facial asymmetry can also be a cause of BVD. Most people are born with eye muscle abnormality or facial asymmetry. As their eye muscles grow weak, they begin developing binocular vision dysfunction.

 

Symptoms of Binocular Vision Dysfunction

Linking symptoms to BVD is among the biggest challenges of the condition. Many indicators of binocular vision dysfunction have no apparent relation to your vision or eyes. Patients with binocular vision dysfunction have a vision misalignment that is small enough for the annual eye exam to detect.

 

BVD symptoms occur as your body tries to correct the misalignment in your vision. As a result, your eye muscles strain, causing symptoms that may include:

 

• Nausea
   

• Dizziness
   

• Persistent headaches
   

• Light sensitivity
   

• Double vision
   

• Blurred vision
   

• Restless sleep pattern
   

• Difficulty focusing when someone talks to you
   

• Difficulty with reading and comprehension
   

• Fatigue when you try to read
   

• Pain in your upper back, neck, and shoulders
   

• Poor coordination
   

• Motion sickness
   

• Drifting or unsteadiness on your feet
  
   

How Neurovisual Medicine Helps

Specialists treat BVD by incorporating bespoke prism into your lenses or eyeglasses. Doing so helps displace the image seen by one eye to match up with the other in perfect synchrony. As a result, the misalignment becomes countered.

 

The amount of prism used varies. Your doctor will fine-tune it over your appointments. Some patients experience 50 percent improvement right away. After the fine-tuning, most individuals get relieved of their symptoms up to 80 percent. As a result, the quality of their life improves.

 

What to Expect 

Neurovisual specialists have the training crucial to diagnosing and treating binocular vision dysfunction. You will need to undergo a comprehensive vision assessment before treatment. Doing so verifies that the treatment can resolve the symptoms you have. The examination lasts from two to three hours. Your specialist will need you to allocate enough time to your schedule for the exam.

For more on Neurovisual medicine, contact Ocean Park Optometry at our office in Santa Monica, California. You can call (310) 452-1039 today to schedule an appointment.