Eye Therapy Treatments

For those who suffer loss of vision associated with strokes or those who are born with visual impairments, eye therapy treatments are essential to restoring partial or sometimes even full vision. Eye therapy treatments consist of eye exercises, programs consisting of eye exercises, corrective lenses, eye patches and special eye stimulation equipment which, over time, strengthen eye muscles and restore the visual pathways in the brain after a traumatic event.

Eye Therapy for Naturally Occurring Eye Problems

• Many people are born with conditions that make it difficult for them to see their way through life. Lazy eyes, crossed eyes, double vision and convergence insufficiency--along with reading difficulties--are common problems, and sometimes these conditions occur over time so that people not only lose their vision, but their confidence as well.

  Eye therapy treatments, sometimes called vision therapy treatments, are progressive programs that are given under the guidance of a trained optometrist's supervision and are usually conducted in the optometrist's office once or twice per week for about 30 minutes per session. During these sessions, a myriad of possible procedures may take place--eye exercises, corrective lenses, the use of visual-motor-sensory-integration training devices, optical filters, eye patches and even computer software.

  According to the American Optometric Association, "Optometric vision therapy assists individuals in developing visual abilities and efficiency most suited to their needs and enables those individuals to achieve maximum levels of visual performance." Unfortunately, many eye therapy treatments are not covered by medical insurance unless you have a specific plan that covers it. Before starting eye therapy treatments for your eye problems, verify with your insurance company that the procedures will be covered or you could be looking at a surprising expense. Eye therapy treatments can cost up to $130 an hour.

Visual Restoration Therapy for Stroke Victims

• Many stroke victims are left without the ability to move their eyes properly for lack of muscle control, or they have blinds spots or partial vision loss known as hemianopia. Visual restoration therapy is a computer-based eye therapy program that visually stimulates a patient's eyes to so that they begin to detect images in the zone between the seeing and non-seeing fields. In many cases, patients reported improvements after one month of treatments.

  Visual restoration therapy, provided by companies such as NovaVision, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat patients who are partly blind due to stroke or brain trauma that causes vision impairment. NovaVision recommends that patients receive two treatments daily for up to six months, and NovaVision also claims to have had great success--through proper documentation of your procedures--in getting treatments covered under your health insurance.