At what age does a lazy eye or strabismus stop getting worst? Should I be worried?

Question

I'm 16 and I have a lazy left eye that crosses inward. I went cross eyed soon after birth and my eyes were severely crossed until my first surgery at age 8. Patching wasn't possible because my left eye was too crossed to see and patching my right eye would of blinded me. Glasses didn't help either.

After surgery it was less severe, but there was still a small turn. Thats when I found out I had no vision in my left eye. I haven't had anymore surgeries because my parents say its pointless.

But my eyes are starting to cross in a lot again and it keeps getting worst. Will it stop or will I go back to looking like before surgery??? Its getting embarrassing and I've been styling my hair to hide it. Should I be worried?

Answer 1

There's no easy answer to this, I'm afraid, but that doesn't mean it's a disaster. Yes, the turn could slowly get worse over time, though it may not. The best that can be done will depend a lot on your individual case so you probably need a good general eye exam to assess the current situation.

With little formed vision in the left eye it has no particular reason to point in the same direction as the good eye so, even if reset straight with further surgery, it could still drift over time. Surgery is not ruled out just for that reason, though.

If there is any uncorrected long-sight in the good eye, that will be tending to cause the left eye to swing in, even if it is not causing any apparent eyestrain in the right eye. That possibility needs assessing. It might offer a quick, simple and relatively cheap improvement, though it would mean wearing glasse, or contact lenses.

There are sometimes cosmetic improvements that can be done without surgery. "Reverse prisms" can give the cosmetic effect of straight eyes while glasses are being worn in some cases.

A specialist route is to have a cosmetic contact lens made with the coloured part "offset" so that *its* iris is straight and having a white periphery to cover the natural but misaligned iris.
These need to be individually assessed and hand-made so are expensive, and not done that often, though they do exist.

The other options really depend on personality...
Learn to accept it as "who you are" and to hell with what anyone else might think of it.
Or if you really don't like the appearance, go the whole hog and get a stylish set of eye patches with outfits and attitude to match! (at least for special occasions: it's perfectly safe.)

I think that covers all the choices, but I can't say which one or combination would be best for you.

Best wishes,

Optometrist, retired.

Answer 2

My sister had this problem but it wasn't as obvious as it sounded with you. Her condition wasn't detected until she was about seven years old. There were attempts to improve the vision in her bad eye from patching but they didn't work. The doctors offered the solution of surgery to try to fix her eyes but it would have left her wall-eyed so our parents declined. She hasn't had problems with her eyes turning in but she is practically blind in her right eye. It's too late to help her now but in your case, since you're still pretty young, you might be able find someone who can help. I would get a second opinion and maybe even a third opinion.

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

get a 2nd opinion