No More Glasses Eye Exercises

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see without glasses? You could avoid dealing with glasses that slip down your nose or fall off when you bend over. You could get rid of your contacts and all the solutions that you need to maintain them. But lasik surgery is too expensive for many people's budgets. Instead, you can do exercises that will improve your vision and could help you get rid of those glasses.

Vision Therapy

• The goal of vision therapy is to train the eyes to correct themselves. It can involve using lenses, prisms and other devices in conjunction with vision exercises. The programs tend to be customized to a person's particular needs. The goal of vision therapy is not necessarily to be able to see clearly without glasses but to correct vision problems that glasses and/or surgery can't correct. In some cases, the result is that vision is improved and glasses aren't needed.

What It Can Correct

• Vision therapy has been used to help a number of vision problems. If any of these match your vision problems, vision therapy may be able to help you: amblyopia, or "lazy eye," strabismus (eye misalignments such as crossed eyes), binocular vision problems (such as disorders caused by eye strain), eye movement disorders (problems with accurate eye movements during close work), focusing disorders, visual-perceptual disorders, developmental problems and vision problems caused by brain injury.

Vision Programs

• The programs that promise that you can improve your vision enough to not need glasses are not considered vision therapy and are not approved by the American Optometric Association. These programs use self-directed exercises that work the muscles around the eyes. One such exercise is called tromboning or pencil push-ups. You hold a pencil at arm's length and focus on the writing on the pencil. Slowly moving the pencil toward you, you keep your focus on the lettering for as long as possible.

Where to Start

• If you have vision problems, you should first have a routine eye exam to diagnose the problem. Talk to your doctor about whether vision therapy would benefit you. You will want to check and see if your insurance will cover the cost of vision therapy.