How to Correct a Wandering Eye Without Surgery

Our brain and eyes work in unison to control where our eyes focus. Sometimes the eye does not receive the signals the brain relays, causing the eye to "wander." Wandering eye is also known as lazy eye (amblyopia) and strabismus.
Lazy eye occurs when the brain favors one eye over the other. The weak eye may wander left or right as it is not receiving the signals from the brain. Strabismus is when the eyes turn away when looking at an object. Both conditions cause the eye to wander from the object on which they should be focused. Although some cases of lazy eye and strabismus require surgery to correct, there are other methods that can help.

Things You'll Need

• Glasses
• Atropine eye drops or ointment
• Eye patch

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Instructions

How to Correct Wandering Eye Without Surgery

• 1

  Correct lazy eye as soon as it is diagnosed in order to prevent long-term vision loss. There are a number of treatments for lazy eye that do not include surgery: corrective eyewear, eye patches, and eye drops.

• 2

  Ask your doctor about corrective eyewear. If lazy eye is caused by vision problem such as nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism then eyeglasses or contact lenses may be recommended to correct the vision problem. This may totally correct the lazy eye.

• 3

  Wear an eye patch. An eye patch may be placed over the strong eye to improve the function of the lazy eye. This stimulates the brain to develop the ability to control the lazy eye as it should.

• 4

  Ask your doctor about using eye drops or ointment. A drug called atropine in the form of an eye drop or ointment may be used to temporarily blur the vision in the strong eye to prompt the use of the weaker eye, strengthening it.

• 5

  Seek instruction in eye muscle training or orthoptics, which is used to treat people with strabismus. Orthoptists or optometrists are the specialists trained in this type of therapy. The muscle training will supposedly help to strengthen the muscles of the eyes and help the vision problems caused by strabismus.

• 6

  Get vision training, which is another method used by optometrists to treat strabismus. It differs from orthoptics in that the training focuses on neurological (brain signals) control of the eyes rather than muscular control.