Squinting Eyes Call for Action

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 942, 30 August 1957, Page 22

Squinting Eyes Call for Action

-_-- ota This is the text of a talk on health broadcast recently from ZB. ZA, YA and YZ

stations by DR

H

B TURBOTT

Deputv-

Director-General of Health

OWADAYS you do not see so many squints, as in days gone by, in gtown-ups, but you still far too often are taken aback to find bonny children spoilt by this defect. The wonder is, immediately, "Do the parents realise these squints should be under treatment?" It used-to be said that you had to wait until a certain age before commencing treatment. This is a fallacy. If a child has a squint, advice should be sought without delay, no matter how young the child may be. To wait too long is dangerous. The sight of the squinting eye may be lost. What makes an eye squint? The roundish eyeball is moved in its bony socket by small muscles fixed to the bone at one end and the eyeball at the other. When these are all equally strong, they turn the eyes together up and down or from side to side. When one or more are weaker than others, the eye is pulled by the stronger ones too far to one or other side, and more rarely excessively up or down. Usually but one eye is affected, occasionally both. You see fewer squints in adults these days because modern treatments are improvements on old ones. The principle adopted is to encourage the weak muscle or muscles to work properly so that there is balanced muscular action,

and synchronous movements of eyes. A course of exercises may be prescribed, known as "orthoptic," and it takes considerable training to equip a person to direct and supervise these exercises. When trained and graduated by examination, this person is known as an "orthoptist." Base hospitals usually have an "orthoptic clinic," where the orthoptist works under the direction of an eye specialist. Results from the re-education of weak eye muscles through graduated exercises are surprisingly good, where both child and parents co-operate, As another help to make a lazy eye work, the good eye may be kept covered over. Sometimes these methods fail. Then an operation may be required to straighten the eye and retain its sight. Sometimes operation may precede exercises, but often exercises are tried -first. Happily they often succeed and operation is avoided. The fact that parents must understand is that a squinting eye can be straightened by operation at any time through life, but the sight once lost can never be

restored, A squinting eye is a difficulty as regards clear vision, so the child quickly learns to neglect visual information from that eye. Non-use of any part of the body leads to loss of function in that part, The non-working or lazy eye -that is, the squinting eye-soon loses the ability to see, and becomes blind. Squints should receive expert attention as soon as possible, therefore, certainly not later than the age of two. The eye specialist, helped by the orthoptist, will be able to keep the vision intact even if they cannot correct the squint in in-| fants and very young children, so seek advice as soon as you observe a squint in any child of yours. I said earlier that results are good where both child and parent co-operate, There is no easy road. It takes perseverance and patience by both. Eye exercises taught at the clinic will have to be practised at home, and father and mother will need to encourage the child, help with the exercises, and keep these going for a very long time, They will need to see that, if so prescribed, the good eye is kept covered. I often see children wearing glasses supposed to block the vision of one eye, wearing their glasses, certainly, but pushed up on the forehead, or tilted up sufficiently to allow peeping underneath or round the side. Teachers at school will help to keep occlusive glasses worn properly, where schoolchildren are having squints corrected, if you will only ask them to help you in making a lazy eye work. You may be sure that all this difficult corrective action would not be persisted with unless experience had shown that, given child and parent co-operation, it did work in the majority, and both child and parents will ultimately be delighted when the eye straightens and the squint has gone for all time. Squints happen usually because of weakness in one or more muscles of the eyeball. They don’t stand still. The appearance worsens as the child gets older, but the rs and certain danger is loss of sight if uncorrected. Correction takes a long time and tons of perseverance and patience, but the price of a straight eye can be won. So, should a squint appear in your child, seek an eye specialist’s advice, gird your loins, and get on with the corrective job.