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Are Orthoptics and Vision Therapy the same?

Optometric vision therapy is a comprehensive rehabilitative vision care program whereas Orthoptics is a subset of it.

What is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy is a program of eye care used to develop, restore and enhance vision. At first, an expert or optometrist examines your eyesight, and the vision issues are noted carefully. Based on the compilation of vision problems, customized vision therapy is designed.

Typically, children or adults manifest signs of visual impairment, to which optometrists recommend vision therapies. Vision therapies teach the brain to decipher visual inputs, develop visual skills, and re-train their visual system to correct vision with increased accuracy and ease.

What is Orthoptics, And Why Is It Called A Subset Of Vision Therapy?

The word orthoptics is derived from the Greek words orthos+ optics, which translates into “straight” and “sight”, 一literally meaning straightening of eyesight. The optometrist treats vision alignment problems such as Strabismus (wandering eye), Amblyopia ( lazy eye), or ocular movements with non-surgical means.

On the contrary to vision therapy, which is an umbrella term for correcting a broad spectrum of vision problems, orthoptics is one part of it that works the eye muscles and helps straighten vision using eye exercises. 

Orthoptic exercises

Depending on the type of linear vision disorder: Strabismus, Amblyopia, or Occular movement disorders, your optometrist will guide you with case-specific exercise.

Eye exercise for Strabismus

Strabismus or “cross-eye” is a condition when both eyes cannot converge at the same point-leading to double vision, lack of depth perception, or eyesight loss. Strabismus is more prevalent in kids than adults, but it may also occur in adults due to stroke, brain trauma, or diabetes.

Since the eye cannot coordinate for binocular vision, they are categorized as different types depending on the convergence or divergence oddity of the eyes. For example, when eyes drift inwards- it is esotropia; when outwards, it is exotropia, and when they see upward and downward, they are called hypertropia or hypotropia.

Depending on the type of Strabismus, eye exercise is recommended.

The exercise includes:

  • Pencil Pushups

Pencil Pushups are simple ocular exercises aiming to converge eyesight at one point. This exercise is effective for both esotropia and exotropia. 

How to do it?

Hold a pencil in hand-at arms distance, look straight, and focus your gaze on the pointed tip of the pencil. Now slowly move the pencil inwards towards the nose bridge( stop if the vision gets blurry) and outwards to maximum arms’ length. Repeat it ten times, three to five times a day.

  • Brock string

Brock string is an instrument with 3-5 equidistant beads on a string. One end of the instrument is secured with a hook, and the other end is in hand. The person has to see each colored block for a few seconds. This exercise develops convergence skills and breaks suppression in the eyes.

  • Barrel cards

Barrel cards are also called training cards and treat lateral vision diversions. On cards, three distinguished red or green blocks are present. The person has to hold the card infront of the nose bridge and focus on each colored block for a few seconds. The person has to keep shifting focus laterally to and fro.                   

Eye exercises for Amblyopia

Amblyopia or lazy eye are reduced vision in one eye. Its occurrence causes brain-eye coordination deficits and vision anomalies. 

It is called lazy eye because one eye is lazier than the other and cannot control synonymous eye functioning. The most common symptom includes squinting, eye flap shutting, or head tilting.

It is diagnosed with eye screening, and the treatment includes:

  • Eye patching- The treatment includes patching the non-amblyopia or stronger eye for some hours every day, straining the amblyopic eye to see. Trails on this method of treatment have shown commendable improvement in vision.
  • 3-D Glasses– 3-D glasses aim to correct refractive errors in amblyopic eyes.
  • Perceptual learning– Patients are trained for contrast sensitivity tasks with both eyes. You can approach our AmblyGo Treatment  for restoring normalcy in vision.

Apart from the other treatment, excersises are very effective in restoring ocular movement as well as neural simulations in the eyes. Some exercise that improves treatment scope includes:

The exercise for treating Amblyopia includes:

  • Pencil pushups- Discussed as above.
  • Coloring Between the lines
  • Video games
  • Dot card
  • Puzzles 
  • Reading
 

Eye conditioning exercises

Some vision problems may occur due to inadequate ocular muscle functioning, lack of eye lubrication, or a combination of eye defects. Lack of eye conditioning is often associated with dry eyes, puffy eyes, eye-reddishness, or eye pain. You may also have a problem concentrating particular font or alphabet. 

The following eye conditioning exercise will work eye muscles, stimulate the tear gland, and accustom the eye to view near and distant objects.

  • 20-20-20 Rule
  •  The figure of “8”
  • Palming
  • Roll your eyes
  • Near-far (distant exercise)
  • Blink-break
  • Rest

These are some common vision therapy exercises that can alleviate a range of eye problems. These excersises are very helpful to de-strain eyes from prolonged screen-time, preventing computer vision syndrome CVS.

Initially, you might have to repeat those exercises infront of an optometrist; later, you can practice them at home. Infact, those optometric exercises for correcting vision alignment have to be repeated religiously -as indicated by the optometrist.

Your doctor will also advise you to seek proper nourishment with multivitamin supplements to revitalize eye muscles and enhance their neural activity, improving overall functioning.

Power-packed Tiffin Recipes For Kids

Presently, on average two out of five children use specs. Therefore apart from seeking remedial solutions, it is important to make kids strong inside out. Here are some here healthy tiffin recipes that children would love.

  • Eyesight Salad- Grate Carrot, beetroot, and cottage cheese and garnish it with mint. Add some chia seeds, sesame seed toppings, and light seasoning.
  • Walnut Pudding- Walnut is a rich source of omega, which is good for eyes and brain development. You can make healthy oats pudding and add walnuts and Brazilian nuts toppings to it.
  • Spinach Dosa– You can add healthy spinach filling to crisp dosa.

 

Vision Therapy: A Broader Spectrum Of Vision Treatment

Vision Therapy is a one-to-one treatment program that aims to strengthen eye-brain coordination. It is a superset of Optometrics that comprise a range of in-office therapies to solve the following range of vision problems:

  • Impaired eye focus
  • Poor-eye hand coordination
  • Eye fatigue 
  • Poor depth perception
  • Reduced eye teaming
  • Difficulties in 3-D vision
  • Strabismus 
  • Convergence insufficiency
  • Amblyopia

 

Amblyopia, Strabismus, and Convergence insufficiency are treated with a set of in-office treatments as well as home-based excersises as part of Orthoptics treatment.

Optometric vision therapy is a blend of medical, developmental, and behavioral therapy that includes the following programs for restoring holistic vision.

  • Saccade therapy
  • Visual, vestibular therapy
  • Accommodation therapy
  • Visual perception Therapy
  • Peripheral awareness therapy
  • Visual-spatial therapy

 

  • Saccade Therapy

Saccades are rapid eye jumps. While reading, often eyes move forward or backward. This happens because eyes cannot focus concurrently while reading, and thus, saccade therapy aims to strengthen eye-brain coordination with visual programs or specific exercises. 

  • Visual Vestibular Therapy

Vestibular therapy is specialized to alleviate vestibular problems (associated with vertigo), i.e., unstable gaze, dizziness, imbalance, and falls. Depending on the diagnosis, the therapy will be framed.

  • Accommodation Therapy

The intended therapy will aim to improve amplitude, agility, and accuracy of the eye’s accommodation, needed while reading or doing several tasks that need accommodative eye-focus.

  • Visual Perception Therapy

The trained optometrists diagnose perception and depth-related vision issues and design an accurate vision therapy. It will include specific excersises, 3-d classes, and visual therapy sessions made with customized gaming programs.

  • Peripheral Awareness Therapy

The inability of the eye to see things that are not in the direct line of vision is called peripheral vision deficits. Therefore, programmed visual training is framed to remedy peripheral vision problems.

  • Visual-spatial therapy

Spatial awareness means being aware of oneself in space. For example, banging on the door, writing above lines, overwriting, etc. are examples of visual-spatial deficits. Visual-spatial therapy aims to increase directional and lateral awareness of candidates by a specific set of in-office exercises.

Vision therapy is a holistic approach to treating diverse vision-related problems that need expert help for treatment.

Do You Know!

  • Over 25% of children have undetected vision problems that degrade their academic as well as athletic performance.
  • Vision therapy success rate is 90-95%.
  • Bynocs designed therapies, lenses, and software programs can do away with 90% of vision problems.
  • Our colorful, fun-filled vision therapy sessions are enjoyable too!

10 Signs That Your Child Needs Vision Therapy

If your answer is yes, to more than five questions, then your child needs a vision therapy program.

  • Does your child have frequent headaches?
  • Does his/her vision overlap while reading?
  • Does your child struggle to read fluently?
  • Does your child’s head tilt while reading?
  • Does your child face balancing issues?
  • Is not your child able to gauge spatial distances?
  • Does your child skip text or words while reading?

If you too suffer the above problems, then book an appointment with your ophthalmologist and ask whether they use Bynocs Vision Therapy solutions. 

Vision Tests

Symptoms indicate the need to see your eye doctor, whereas vision tests indicate exact eye condition and help ophthalmologists or optometrists plan treatment.

The test includes:

  •  Suppression Test – Suppression means ignoring some visual signals provided to the eyes. It is common for Amblyopia and Strabismus patients. It helps ophthalmologists learn the accuracy of central vision.  Suppression tests include the Four Dot test, Striated lens test, Brock string, Four base-out prism test.
  • Worth 4 Dot Test– This simple test is used to measure the degree of binocular vision aberration.

Dot Test

  • Dot Versus Contour Test– This is a stereopsis test. This test help judge the depth-perception of the candidate.
 

Benefits Of Vision Therapy

Vision therapy has already helped millions of people. With our cutting-edge solutions, we try to maximize the benefit of vision therapy. Some well-known vision therapy benifits are as:

  • Vision Enhancement
  • Better learning
  • Increased safety while driving or walking as pedestrians
  • Living an active life and enjoying favorite sports 
  • Sharper vision-enhancing academic performance
  • Lesser eye problems

How Bynocs Helps

The role of Bynocs in restoring vision is as important as seeking treatment from an adept ophthalmologist. We help you with the latest cutting-edge solutions that remedy the ocular problems in the smartest ways.

For example -our unique software for the lazy eye treatment– AmbyGo, approaches Amblyopia in a unique way, different from the conventional eye-patching approach. We utilize dichoptic therapy in which contrast-adjusted games are presented to both eyes( non-amblyopic eye receiving lesser contrast images). The binocular dysfunction adjusts with progressive sessions of Amblygo treatment.

Bynocs Amblyopia Therapy | Lazy Eye Treatment | Dichoptic Games 

We also provide 3-D lenses with a combination of lens and coating, catering to the patient’s holistic vision needs. Similarly, our De-strain treatment successfully treats computer vision syndrome, relieves your eye from screen stress, and reverses the passive damage to vision due to CVS.

Note To Readers

So, whether you need a comprehensive vision therapy program or specialized orthoptic treatment, let the specialist decide what is good for you. However, it is very important that you be aware of eye anomaly symptoms and reach out to an ophthalmologist when in need.

Also, it is important to maintain eye health, take good nutrition, give eyes enough rest, and get regular eye checkups to ensure optimal eye health.

Several ophthalmologists use our innovative approach to treat a range of vision problems. So, it is time now you upgrade to better eye treatment and learn whether your ophthalmologist has access to it. We have helped a thousand patients and several ophthalmologists leverage their treatment process using our solution-oriented treatments to date.