Convergence insufficiency

[tanya555]

i have been diagonised with convergence insufficiency. I have had this from childhood when they told me that i'll grow out of it but nothing of that sort happened. Both my eyes are not converging well enough. I guess the turn also has worsened a bit. So i have been doing some convergence exercises for the past one and a half months. The eye turn is pretty less but i get self concious about it. Has anyone had success with these exercises? How long will i have to do them and will it realy help align my eyes and also make me asymptomatic (like i have blury vision after reading books and gets worse when i do lots of close-up work)

Tanya

[Torre]

Tanya: Exercises for exotropia do have some success (whereas esotropia doesn't respond as well), but as for a complete cure, I don't know. You may require surgery.

A great advocate of eye exercise to reprogramme the brain is Dr. Merrill D. Bowan. You can look him up.

Torre

[tanya555]

Thanks Torre. I think that was some motivation for me when you said "some success for exotropia" because i'm really scared about the surgery.

[EYESTWO22]

Tanya:

Point of information:
Merrill D. Bowman,O.D.
Neurodevelopmental Optometrist
The Learning Clinic
724-274-8315
Oakmont. PA 15139

If you are doing just home exerices, that may not be enough training.
In office tharpy may be needed when you have exotropia and convergence
insufficiency. I'm sure that Dr. Bowman can help with a recommendation of an Optometrist in your area. It's worth a try.

Good luck,

EYESTWO22

[Torre]

It's B-O-W-A-N.
When AAPOS had a forum, a pediatric ophthalmologist used to answer questions. He said although most doctors scoffed at eye exercises he would admit that exotropia did respond to some degree. That wasn't a ringing endorsement. Dr. Bowan used to answer questions there as well and had a friendly rivalry going on with the doctor. A search engine should lead you to Dr Bowan's site (we can't post it) and he would be happy to suggest a VT optometrist in your area. As Eyestwo said, you need specific exercises--well, vision therapy is what it's called.

As far as the surgery goes, I can understand being scared, but apparently it's not too bad.

T.