Treatment of children

Orthoptics focuses on all disorders relating to binocular vision in children, as well as in adults. Good binocular vision is an important condition for child development. If the child’s visual abilities cannot develop fully by the age of 6, the child is left with serious sight impairments in one or both eyes. These may lead to a loss of spatial vision.

The causes can be:

• Defective vision
• Strabismus Squinting = malalignment of one or both eyes (approximately 4 million people in Germany are affected)
• Congenital cataracts (lens opacity)
• Congenital glaucoma (increased intraocular pressure)

If one eye is not involved in the act of seeing, this leads to amblyopia (weakness in vision). It is important for amblyopia to be detected as early as possible, as treatment can only be successful before the child is 6.

Treatment options:

• Supply of ophthalmic lenses
• Treatment of sight defect (possibly with occlusion therapy)
• Eye muscle surgery

However, an important factor is the parents’ cooperation and the early presentation of the child for an ophthalmological orthoptic examination.

Warning signs of an existing visual disorder may be the appearance of the following symptoms:

• Squinting, even if it is only occasional
• Frequent rubbing of eyes
• Red eyes
• Frequent screwing up of the eyes
• Unusual stumbling or tripping
• Double images
• Concentration problems
• Headaches