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A squint, or strabismus, is a condition in which the eyes do not align properly. Squinting means both eyes are looking in different directions. One eye turns inwards, upwards, downwards, or outwards, while the other one focuses at one spot.
Squint eyes most commonly occur in children less than 6 years of age but can occur in people of all age groups. Depending on the direction of the movement of the deviated eye, strabismus types are as follows:
A squint in adults may appear due to various reasons, including:
A childhood squint that was untreated or resurfaced later due to stress, eye fatigue, or vision changes
Thyroid eye disease
Myasthenia gravis
Trauma or injury
Stroke or neurological disorders
Tumors affecting the eye muscles or nerves
In some cases, no clear cause is found (idiopathic)
Adults with squint may experience one or more of the following:
Eye strain or discomfort
Double vision (diplopia)
Blurry or overlapping images
Difficulty in reading or focusing on near tasks
Poor depth perception, leading to imbalance or misjudging distances
Eyes look naturally aligned
Better depth perception
Reduced double vision
Improved visual comfort
Better quality of life and self-confidence
Squint is a condition associated with misalignment of the eyes. If you have a squint, one eye (fixating eye) will focus on the object that you are seeing while the other one (deviating eye) will turn inward, outward, upward, or downward depending upon the type of squint you are suffering from.
The most obvious sign of squinting is, your eyes do not point in the same direction. One eye will point at the object that you wish to see whereas the one with squint problem will turn inward, towards your nose, outward, upward or downward.
Not always. It can be associated with decreased vision or diplopia (double vision). Loss of binocular vision (ability to use the Eyes together) can lead to loss of fine stereopsis (depth perception) and peripheral visual field.
It is assessed by various orthoptics test, the aim of which is to:
Like any other treatment, surgery has its adverse effect. Your doctor will suggest if squint surgery is the best option for you or not. Overall it is absolutely safe.
It is a day Care Surgery with no hospitalisation. The eye pad is removed the next day and eyedrops are instilled a couple of times during the next weeks. Since it is an external surgery there is no effect on the vision. Most of the times external sutures are absorbable and do not have to be removed. Though the eyes may be red initially but a person can join back his office in a couple of days.
