Prevention is better than cure – who hasn’t heard of this famous adage? When it comes to eye health, vision therapy is now being used as a preventive measure to avoid eye diseases and complications. Many eye doctors firmly believe that this therapy offers excellent benefits, especially for specific vision problems in children. Let’s look at vision therapy and its benefits.

What is Vision Therapy?

Vision therapy is a non-surgical, customized program an eye doctor designs and supervises to treat certain vision problems and improve overall visual skills. Contrary to the eyeglasses, contact lenses, and eye surgery that serve to compensate for eye problems, vision therapy aims to teach the eye to correct itself.

Mainly, it involves some vision activities that target the eyes and some parts of the brain that control vision. Often, lenses, filters, prisms, and computer-assisted activities are involved in creating a personalized vision therapy program. Other tools may include non-computerized instruments, metronomes, and balance boards.

The Goal of Vision Therapy

The primary goal of vision therapy is to treat vision problems that eyeglasses, contact lenses, and surgery fail to help, letting people see clearly and comfortably. Several medical studies confirm the effectiveness of this therapy program. It can treat vision problems, such as children reading quickly with minimal eyestrain and symptoms of computer vision syndrome. Other vision problems it can correct are:

• Eye movement disorders
• Amblyopia
• Strabismus
• Accommodative (focusing) disorders
• Other binocular vision problems

Is Vision Therapy Right for You?

To determine if vision therapy is right for you or not, you must first schedule a comprehensive eye exam. An eye doctor will identify eye problems and recommend vision therapy to best correct it.