Double Vision

Double vision (diplopia) is a serious condition. It could be due to strabismus, brain injury or stroke, or decompensated binocular skills. Decompensating means that someone HAD the skill, but lost it or is in the process of losing it. A brain injury, stroke, concussion, and other neurologically compromising conditions could be at the root. Some eye-muscle conditions, including ophthalmoplegia and gaze palsy, can also be the reason for double vision.

Solutions to double vision include prisms, lenses, vision therapy, and Syntonic Phototherapy. At times, we combine these to offer a short term and long term solution. If not addressed, double vision leads to difficulty learning, difficulty driving, and difficulty reading and working on computer. At times, a child learns to eliminate the double image by turning off (suppressing) the vision of one eye in order to eliminate the diplopia. If lenses, prisms, and / or therapy are not successful and the patient does not suppress, intractable diplopia ensues.

Some doctors patch one eye in order to eliminate the diplopia. This however circumvents the problems and does not address it. When someone becomes one-eyed (monocular(, they lose the ability to be binocular. They lose the ability to see in depth and the visual field (how well you see to the sides) is then limited. This then limits eye hand coordination, depth judgments, orientation, balance, mobility, and activities of daily living such as playing sports, driving, climbing stairs, crossing the street, threading a needle etc.

Addressing the source of the problem and then eliminating it, is a much better way to solve the problem than simply masking the problem.