People often get confused by eye alignment issues. Wondering how squint and strabismus, the most common eye alignment issues differ?
An individual is said to have ‘squint’ when their eyes lack alignment and tend to look in different directions. The problem typically affects children, but it may occur at any age. Using corrective eyewear and other treatments may help the patient see better.
A person may experience ‘strabismus’ on a constant basis or intermittently. The most common reason why it happens is because the extraocular muscles – muscles responsible for controlling the eye movement and the eyelid – lack proper synchronisation.
Injury or some brain-related disorder may also impact the eyes’ ability to work together. Constant strabismus may hinder binocular vision so much that the patient may lose depth perception. It is believed to affect every 2 to 5 out of 100 people in the general population.
What Does Strabismus Mean?
Strabismus is a medical term that describes an eye disorder in which eyes do not align properly. While one eye may look straight, the other one may look inwards, outwards, upwards, or downwards. It happens because eye muscles responsible for controlling movement do not work in unison, leading to improper co-ordination between the eyes.
Most patients of strabismus are children, although it can occur at any age. It may be always present or occur intermittently, particularly when the patient is exhausted or trying to focus on a particular task.
Strabismus or misaligned eyes are not merely an aesthetic concern. It may cause issues with depth perception, and if left untreated, it may also lead to amblyopia or lazy eye (one eye becoming weaker).
What is Squint Eye?
Squint refers to an eye condition wherein eyes are not properly aligned. The term ‘squint’ is widely used in common language, and in clinical terms, the condition is known as ‘strabismus’. In other words, most people not associated with the medical industry use the term ‘squint’ for misaligned eyes, while ‘strabismus’ is preferred by eye doctors for diagnosing and making treatment plans for the condition.
Squint vs Strabismus
Let’s clear the mist around squint vs strabismus debate. Both refer to the same condition – misaligned eyes. It is just that eye specialists use the medical term, strabismus, while common people tend to call it squint. That’s the reason, the terms are frequently used interchangeably.
In India, people would generally say that somebody ‘has a squint’ instead of using the medical term ‘strabismus’.
Types of Squints
Depending on the cause or the way the eye turns, squint can be of different types:
- Esotropia: inwards turning eye
- Exotropia: outwards turning eye
- Hypertropia: upwards turning eye
- Hypotropia: downwards turning eye
While these terms may not be of much essence to ordinary people, they are generally used in clinical settings by ophthalmologists. Hence, squint and strabismus essentially differ in terminology and context. For formal diagnosis, doctors use ‘strabismus’, while ‘squint’ is the term the general population is familiar with.
What matters is that appropriate treatment can help manage ‘squint’ and ‘strabismus’ to restore proper eye alignment in patients, and along with it vision quality.
Causes of Strabismus or Squint Eye Problem
An individual gets ‘strabismus’ when eye muscles fail to work in tandem, resulting in one eye drifting to a different direction. Common reasons behind squint eye are –
- Problem with nerves that control the eye muscles
- Issues with brain’s control centres responsible for eye movement
- Family history (genetics)
- Congenital (a newborn has squint at birth)
- Neurological issues like Down syndrome and cerebral palsy
- Brain injury
- One eye having superior vision than the other, leading to an imbalance
In common parlance, squint means any visible misalignment of the eyes, and the causes are very much similar to those of strabismus. At times, a child has much weaker vision in one eye, which makes the brain ignore visual inputs from that eye.
Apart from that, prolonged screen use or reading in dim light may increase eye strain and lead to occasional squints, or worsen a pre-existing squint.
It is crucial to identify early signs of squint in children as well as adults. Proper medical checkup can help detect the underlying cause and devise an effective treatment plan. Early medical intervention can improve eye alignment and prevent complications like vision loss.
Treatment for Strabismus and Squint
Treatment for squint and strabismus aims to improve visual coordination by improving eye alignment. The right treatment option depends on the patient’s age, how severe the misalignment is, and the duration of the condition.
Mild Cases
- Vision therapy
- Wearing corrective eyewear
Advanced Cases
- Wearing special glasses
- Using prisms
- Patching (when one eye is weaker than the other)
- Surgery
Surgery is recommended when other treatments do not prove effective. Eye doctors adjust the eye muscles to ensure proper eye alignment.
Sohana Eye Hospital provides all advanced and customised treatments for squint and strabismus ranging from vision therapy to surgical intervention. Expert eye specialists at the hospital have years of experience in treating all kinds of eye conditions – from the simplest to the most complicated ones – in people of all ages.
